What is the "state food" of Nevada? That's a difficult question to answer. Why?
Because cuisine is not easily defined by political boundaries. It is a complicated mix of history,
cultural/ethnic influence, and local commodities. Some states and cities are commonly associated
with recipes (Maryland crab cakes, Boston baked beans, Philly cheese steak, New York style
pizza)
others are moore challenging to connect with a particular dish. If your teacher asks you to research/bring in a
food that represents a particular state, you have several options:

ABOUT THIS SITE: The food notes provided for each state are meant as starting points for your research.
They are not comprehensive; nor are they presented in a standardized format containing exactly the same information for each state, as you
would find in an encyclopedia. Our notes, like state foods, are a reflection of the people who land on our site.
Most of our state food questions are generated by elementary/secondary students working on state reports. Many of you have to prepare a food representative
of your state. That's what this page is all about.
If you need more information (looking for state foods connected with a particular period/people? writing a book and need authentic
fare? working on a 4H/scout project?) please let us know! We also welcome your suggestions.

If you need to make something (easy, inexpensive) for class? We suggest:

"St. Charles Indian Bread (Mobile Alabama)
2 eggs
1 pt. Buttermilk
1 pt. White corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
1 scant teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
Beat the eggs very light, and mix alternately with them the buttermilk and the corn meal; add salt
and the butter, which has been melted, and beat well. Dissolve the soda in 1 tablespoon of the
buttermilk, and add it to the other ingredients. Pour into a well-greased pan and bake in a quick
oven."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Shelia Hibben [Harper &
Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 14)
[NOTE: Quick oven usually means 475 (very hot). No specified time makes this recipe hard for
us modern folk. Our advice? Set your oven timer for 15 minutes. Check for "doneness" with a
toothpick or barbeque pick. If the pick comes out "clean" (no dough attached) the bread is done.
If not, let it continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Recheck until pick comes out clean.]

Contemporary cuisine
Acccording to the Juneau Centennial Cookbook, Jane Stewart, Phyllice F. Bradner & Betty
Harris [1980] the recipes listed below are family favorites contributed by people who lived in
Alaska at least 50 years. Many of these recipes have historical notes dating back to the early days
of Juneau. Notice the Scandinavian influence.

Today's Alaskan menus and dining options are not unlike those found in the "Lower 48." There are local
truck stop cafes, great burger/salad places, Mexican restaurants, standard cafeteria fare, and four star
dining rooms connected with resort hotels catering to the cruise ship crowd.

Raincoast Kitchen: Coastal Cuisine with a dash of history/Museum of Campbell River

Need to make something for class?
Alaska is a great state to get for a food project. You have so many choices! All you need to do is place the
recipe within historic context. Assuming you're not in the mood for moose, consider:
Inuit--pemmican & fish Gold rush--sourdough & beans Russian settlement/Sitka--pierogi & pea soup Victorian era--Blueberry cobbler & rhubarb crisp (recipes below)

We visited Alaska recently and the two most outstanding foods were salmon, halibut and berries (esp.
blueberries/huckleberries). The fish were served a variety of ways including baked, broiled, pie,
croquettes, and smoked. Berries were featured in mufins, crisps, pancakes and quick breads. Also on the
menus (maybe not the best choices for a school party) were cariboo, venison, and moose. They are pretty
tasty.

Historic Arkansas foodways:
"Most of the early pioneers who moved west bypassed what is now Arkansas and its
Ozark Mountains because of the rocky landscape and poor soil. In the late 1700s and
early 1800s, however, hard-working farmers from Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee,
who were used to farming under difficult conditions, settled in Arkansas. They brought
their recipes for curing hams, roasting pork ribs over open fires, and baking soda biscuits
and molasses cakes...Since Arkansas borders the South, the Southwest, and the Midwest,
it has a mixture of cuisines. Plantation cookery of the Mississippi Valley, the hill cooking
of the Ozarks, and the Mexican influcences of Texas and Oklahoma all combine to make
a unique style of food...There is a great emphasis of real "down-home" flavors. Fried pork
chops with a light-brown cream gravy to which bits of sausage have been added have
remained a favorite dish. Sausage is also used in poultry stuffings, along with cooked
rice. Arkansas-style chicken is prepared by first simmering the chicken pieces in a skillet
and then baking them in the oven with a Creole sauce. Each region of Arkansas has its
own unique food. In the southern bayou country, roast duck, candied yams, fried chicken,
fluffy biscuits and peach cobblers are often served. Around Texarkana, pinto beans and
barbecued beef of the Southwest are typical fare. Along the Mississippi River, catfish are
popular in stews and fried...In the hill coutnry of the Ozarks, dishes such as bacon with
cracklin's corn bread, baked beans, wilted lettuce with bacon and vinegar, bread and apple
jelly, and ginger bread for dessert are traditional everyday fare...Roasted raccoon, roasted
beaver-tail, and baked opossum are Arkansas soul food...Arkansans prefer hot bread with
their meals...They like steaming-hot corn breads, hot biscuits, or fresh-out-of-the-oven
rolls. Strawberry shortcake is a favorite dessert of Arkansans...The Arkansas version of
the shortcake usese a crisp, buttery biscuit, which is split in half, soaked in strawberry
juice, and then topped with a mound of whipped cream and fresh strawberries...Over the
past 50 years, Arkansas has become an important poulty-producing state, as well as a
major producer of fruits, vegetables, rice, and soybeans. In the 1840s Arkansas farmers
began experimenting with orchards. Their apples soon won first prizes...Peaches also
became an important Arkansas fruit crop."
---Tastes of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 106-9)

"The folks in Arkansas have so many good things to eat, and such different foods at different seasons of the year and in different
sections of the state, that I am sending you several different menus; a game dinner to be served to hunters, a plantation dinner, an
early summer dinner and a duck dinner. You can take your choice or use all of them. Arkansas has fine fruits; strawberries,
youngberries, Boysenberries, raspberries, grapes, peaches, figs and watermelons. The most common meats are poultry, kid, lamb,
mutton and fresh pork. There is also an abundance of game and fish. The favorite breads are biscuit and variations of corn bread,
from pan bread to corn dodgers. The Mexican influence has extended this far east and north. One finds tomatoes, onions, garlic
and pepper, and hotter foods than further north. Also the Mexican chopped hot vegetable and all forms of field peas, such
as Crowder peas, lady peas, Black-eyed peas, etc. There are many wild greens and fruits which are much used
and relished by the people: Muscadine grapes, possum persimmon, wild plum, watercress, hickory nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts,
walnuts and chinquapins. The wild fruits are eaten fresh and also made into many delicious products for the winter..."

Need to make something for class?
The recipes below are offered in our books as examples of traditional Arkansas fare. If you have access to a Dutch Oven, you can
use that as your historic foodways example. Soups, stews, biscuits and cobbler/pot pies are easily rendered in this pot.

"Old-Fashioned Corn Bread
Over the years corn bread has had many variations. Butts of bacon, or crackling, corn kernels, chili peppers, cheese, or onions
have all been added to corn bread batter at one time or another. This corn bread can be baked either in an iron skillet, similar to
the Dutch ovens the early settlers used, or in a n 8-inch square baking pan. The sugar used in this recipe is traditional in southern
corn bread.
Serves 6 to 8
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons melted butter, margarine or bacon drippings
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the buttermilk, eggs, and 3 tablespoons of the melted butter. Mix well. Brush a 10-inch iron
skillet with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake in a preheated 425 degree
F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm."
---Taste of the States,(p. 107)

"Little Fellows
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup lemon juice
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
30 unbaked tart shells (about 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches deep)
Cream the butter and sugar just enough to blend well--mixture chould not be fluffy or filling may bubble up and boil over in the
oven. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in flour. Add the lemon juice and rind (the mixture will seem to curdle but don't be
alarmed; it will smooth out in the baking). Spoon mixture into tart shells, filling each no more than 2/3 full. (Should you have any
leftover filling, spoon into a custard cups, again filling no more thatn 2/3 fill, set in a small baking pan, and pour water
into pan to a depth of 1 inch. These may be baked in the oven alongside the tarts and will be done in about the same amount of time.) Bake
tarts in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) 30 to 35 minutes until filling is puffy and golden and pastry lightly browned. Remove
from oven, cool tarts in their pans to room temperature, then remove from pans and serve."
---"Arkansas Territorial Restoration [Little Rock Arkansas]," Recipes from America's Restored Villages, Jean Anderson [Doubleday:Garden City NY] 1975 (p. 234-5)
[NOTE: ""Little Fellows" are nothing more than small lemon "chess" tarts--vey lemony, very buttery, very seweet. Lemon "chess" resembles
the English lemon "cheese," and some food believe that "chess" is a corruption of "cheese."..."Little Fellows" are often no bigger
than a thimble, but a more practical size is the small individual tart. You can buy prepared tart shells, ready to fill and bake,
in many supermarkets." (p. 234)]

You will find an excellent summary of the foods of California in the Oxford
Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America/Andrew F. Smith, Volume 1 (p. 165-172). Your librarian can help you find a
copy. Helen Brown's West Coast Cook
Book (c. 1952) offers a delightful collection of California recipes, many with
historic notes. Erica Peter's San Francisco: A Food Biography is well written and sourced (no recipes).

The California Mission Studies Association is
dedicated to study and preservation of the history of Spanish missions.
Information on several Mission web sites confirms foods of these Missions
generally consisted of simple local fare, much of it grown on site.

"The neophytes were given morning and evening meals of atole and a mid day
meal of pozole. They were allowed to gather wild foods, as was their custom
before the Spanish came. On Sundays and special feast days everyone received
almost a half peck of wheat...Mission life was routine; order was brought out of a
wilderness. In general, seven hours of the day were allotted to labor, with two
hours of prayer daily and four or five on Sundays and on days of festivals. In the
morning their food consisted of atole or a gruel of barley, wheat, or corn. At noon,
they got pozole, which consisted of the same grains, only boiled. In the evening, it
was the same food as in the morning, but in addition, every few days cattle were
slaughtered to provide beef. "
---San Diego History, Richard Pourade

According to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, the Spanish introduced many foods to California via Mexico. These included: almonds,
apples, apricots, bananas, barley, beans, cherries, chickpeas, chilies, citrons, dates, figs, grapes, lemons, lentils, limes, maize, olives, nectarines, oranges, peaches,
pears, plums, pomegranates, quinces, tomatoes, walnuts, wheat, chickens, cows, donkeys, goats, horses, sheep and domesticated turkey.
"The colonists supplemented their fare with most of the same types of game hunted by the Native Americans. The colonists made corn tortillas, as the wheat
varieties that they brought with them were not easily cultivated in California. When wheat became more abundant, it was used to make tortillas on special
occasions. The Spanish established the first flour mill in 1786. The role of the missions was to Christianize the California Indians. Many Indians did convert to
Christianity and relocated around the Spanish settlements, which resulted in a shift in their diet. They had been accustomed to eating vegetables, fish, and game, but
mission agricultures and husbandry brought them a monotonous diet of atole, a gruel made from ground, leached acorns or other nutlike seeds, and pinole, a flour
made by grinding seeds."
---Oxford Encylopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] Volume 1, 2004 (p. 166)

"Another Spanish holding, California, had no European inhabitants until 1769 when Franciscan priests established their first mission at San Diego. A first concern
of the missionaries was to obtain wine and wheat for holy communion and beeswax for altar candles. The bees they brought from Spain and, with the help of
their Indian converts, they planted vinyards and wheat fields. Citrus fruit trees were also brought from Spain, as were dates and figs. Two other foods that grew
well in these places were brought from Mexico: sweet potatoes and avocados...The Spanish colonists brought with them favorite foods--among them, saffron,
olive oil, and anise and combined these foods with foods of the local Indians and the Mexican Indians to make a New Mexican cuisine that still flourishes today."
---Heritage Cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens [Meredith Corporation:Des Moines IA] 1975 (p. 39)
[NOTE: Recipes included in this book are: Red Chili Sauce, Posole, Chili Meat Sauce, Stacked Enchiladas, Corn Tortillas, Spicy Hot Chocolate,
Chilies Rellenos, Early Spanish Rice, Spanish String Beans, Spanish Vegetables (corn, onion, zucchini, tomatoes). You librarian will be happy to help you obtain
a copy.]

Manufactured foods
Did you know shredded wheat was invented in Colorado? Henry Perky invented a
machine to produce America's first
shredded wheat in his downtown Denver factory. The American sugar beet industry has ties to Denver. Charles Boettcher and John F.
Campion left the faltering silver city of Leadville for Denver, where they founded the
Great Western Sugar Company to grow sugar beets. Stearns-Roger, a major engineering
firm, switched from building smelters to erecting sugar beet factories.

Top crops (make a food with one of these ingredients)
According the US Dept. Of
Agriculture, Colorado's largest crops (2002) were potatoes, followed by pinto beans
and light red kidney beans.

Need to make something for class?

"Trappers Fruit
To make about 5 cups
3 cups (about 12 ounces) coarsley chopped dried apples
1 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup roasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup seedless raisins
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 quart water
Combine the [ingredients] and water in a heavy 3 to 4 quart casserole and mix well. Bring
to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover tightly and simmer for about 1 1/2
hours, or until the apples are tender. Check the pan occasionally and, if the fruit seems
dry, add more water 1/4 cup at a time. Transfer the fruit to a bowl and cool to room
temperature before serving. Trappers' fruit, so called because it was easy for Colorado fur
trappers on the mid-19th Century to prepare, is served as an accompaniment to roasted
and broiled meats."
---American Cooking: The Great West , Jonathan Norton Leonard [Time-Life
Books:New York] 1971 (p. 84)

"Muffin Cakes (Colorado)
yolks 8 eggs
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour (sifted twice)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Beat the yolks until they are thick and lemon colored; add the sugar gradually, beating all
the time. Add the butter, creamed until soft and fluffy, then add flour and vanilla, and last
of all the baking-powder. Grease muffin-pans and dredge them with flour; then invert the
pans and tap the bottoms lightly so that no loose flour remains. Put a very little of the
batter in each muffin pan, as it rises considerably. Bake in fairly hot oven until brown.
Serve the same day as baked. These cakes will fall a little when taken from the oven,
which is as it should be."
---The National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana, Sheila Hibben [Harper &
Brothers:New York] 1932 (p. 392-3)
[NOTE: Ms. Hibben's book is well regarded by food historians as accurate. She does not,
however, provide notes as to how the recipes she selects connect with the designated
state. Baking powder was a favorite ingredient in 19th century Western states, when yeast
was sometimes hard to come by.]

"Ranch-style Pan Bread
Cast-iron frying pans were used on the frontier for making all manner of breads,
including this one, a quick, easy baking powder bread with a light, cakey texture
Serves 9
2 cups siftged all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Combine the ingredients in a food processor, being careful not to overmix. The dough
will be quite sticky. Bake in a greased 9-inch square iron skillet for 25 to 30 minutes, or
until dark golden brown. Trust your eyes to tell you when this bread is done, not the
clock. For a crustier bread, bake ranch style, spread thinly in a 9- by 12-inch greased iron
skillet and baked until dark golden brown. NOTE: For more authentic, traditional flavor,
use lard or bacon fat instead of vegetable shortening. Bake ranch style."
---The Fort Cookbook: New Foods of the Old West from the Famous Denver
Restaurant, Samuel P. Arnold [Harper Collins:New York]1997 (p. 21)
[NOTE: This book contains dozens of traditional and locally inspired recipes. The
author's notes help you understand the connection to Colorado. Your local public
librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy. Selected recipes online.]

"In the early 1630s both the English of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Dutch of New Amersterdam Colony eyed the wide,
fertile Connecticut Valley as a possibility for settlement, agriculture, and fur trading. In June 1633 the Hollanders built a fort
at what was to become Hartford. In the fall of 1634, JOhn Oldham and ten others left Watertown in the Massachusetts Colony
to establish a permanent settlement at Wethersfield, south of Hartford. Memebers of the John Oldham group became the first
Europeans to plant seeds in the soil of Connecticut. They sowed rye in a fallow Indian field. The next year several more
groups came from Massachusetts and brought cattle and hogs. The harsh winters, however, drove most of these early
settlers back to their Massachusetts homes. By the end of the 1630s, those who remained had created productive farms,
started the mercantile town of New Haven, and established an independent government. The early Dutch settlers in the
Hartford area did likewise. They planted apple orchards, appointed a committee to select superior calves for breeding
stock, and developed a dairy industry. By the 1640s the efforts of both the English and the Dutch settlers had made the
new territory of Connecticut virtually self-sufficient...As the population of Connecticut increased, so did the farming. The
variety of crops expanded to include many vegetables, as well as berries and fruit trees...the farmers..raised radishes,
lettuce, cucumbers, and melons...The early Connecticut farmers also dug underground pits where they stored cabbages,
squash, potatoes, and other root vegetables...Fishing has always been an important part of the Connecticut economy. Shad
fishing along the Connecticut River...has been a tradition since colonial times...When the English first settled in the
Connecticut River Valley, the numerous shad were despised as food. Eating shad meant that a person was almost destitute
or had exhausted his supply of salt pork."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Publications:Charlottesville VA] 1992
(p. 12)

Early Connecticut recipes
Amelia Simmon's
American Cookery (originally published in Hartford, 1796)is generally considered to be the first American
cookbook. Why? Because it contained recipes using "Indian" maize.
About the book & its author. Popular period foods
included pies, cakes, soups (chowder, especially), baked beans, roasted meats, breads, and pork (salt pork, bacon, ham).

Seafood: People living near the Long Island Sound consumed fish and
shellfish in great quantities. They still do. Chowders (clam, haddock, seafood) were/are
quite popular. Lobsters and oysters were plentiful. About chowder. Connecticut-style seafood recipes are
printed in this book: Recipes From America's Restored Villages, Jean Anderson
(p. 36-43)

Official state foodsNutmeg:
One of Connecticut's nicknames is is called "The Nutmeg State." Nutmegs are
spices which are NOT indigenous to Connecticut. This makes for an interesting report.
What is nutmeg?

Eastern oyster: This official state symbol was
selected because many people in the early days (Native Americans and European settlers)
ate them regularly.

Did you know???!
Hamburgers (as we know them today): Some food historians claim
these were "invented" in a tiny restaurant called Louis Lunch in New Haven, CT. Notes
here (scroll
down about half way).

"The foods of Delaware are primarily English with some German influences. The Germans who settled Pennsylvania
also settled in the northern part of Delaware and continued to prepare their traditional German dishes, which eventually
intermingled with those of Delaware. After the broiler [chicken] industry started, broiled chicken with sour-milk biscuits
became a favorite. Shrimp steamed over a pan of spiced vinegar and served with tartar sauce was a traditinal seafood
dish. Cooks prepared cauliflower with a custard sauce and creamed-corn pudding as accompaniments to meat dishes.
There was also a fish stew, called Muddle, which included fin and shellfish and was cooked in a Dutch oven. Lemon
butter and lemon jelly were used as sandwich fillings. Steamed crabs were cooked at beach picnics. Ham smoked to a
rich brown, almost the shade of mahogany, and aged at least a year has been a Delaware specialty. Delaware has
also contributed to the cooking and packaging of food. Cellophane was invented by the E.I. Du Pont de Nemours
Company of Wilmington."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p.
40)

Newcastle, DE
The city of New Castle, Delaware was originally settled by the Dutch,
meaning much of its early foodways would have been influenced by the
cuisine of the Netherlands. Later settlers included the Swedish and the
British. About Dutch foodways in America: The Sensible Cook: Dutch
Foodways in the Old and New World, Translated and Edited by Peter G.
Rose. Additional sources of information: New Castle Historical
Society and the Historical
Society of Delaware.

Need to make something for class?
Chicken (blue hen) or crab are the traditional meats of choice. If you prefer
dessert? Something with peaches (the official state fruit) is perfect. "Peaches,
a new fruit for the Swedes and Finns [living in Colonial-era Delaware], were
grown in orchards, along with cherries and wild plums..."---Taste of the States: A
Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 38). Additional
information:
Sweet History: Delaware's Peach Producing Past & Can It! Canning
in Delaware. Recipes here!.

About Florida's culinary heritage
"Spaniards were the first [European] people to discover the riches of Florida. Ponce de Leon,
Hernando de Soto, and Panfilo de Narvaez explored the Florida peninsula during the first half of
the 1500s. They brought seeds for oranges, lemons, and other tropical fruits but were too busy
searching for gold to care for them. Consequently, the trees grew wild...The first large group of
permanent settlers in Florida were not English or American, but Minorcans, Greeks, and Italians.
They were recruited in 1764 by an Englishman to immigrate to Florida to grow indigo...For a while
the colonists grew indigo but turned to fishing when they found that the sea was laden with shrimp
and fish similar to those of their homeland. They also discovered that lemons, eggplant, and
olives--all staples of their native diets--grew well on the land...Although the Spanish first settled
Florida, their culinary influence was minimal. The Spanish conquistadors, however, did bring
some Caribbean fruits and vegetables to Florida. They also introduced black beans. A typical dish
of the Spanish settlers at St. Augustine was Garbanzo Soup, which was prepared with dried chick
peas and other vegetables. The soup also contained chorizo, a Spanish sausage, plus a pinch of
saffron for color and flavor. The first permanent culinary influence in Florida came from the
American settlers who established citrus farms in the late 1760s. They brought with them a fairly
developed Southern cuisine, which was enhanced in Florida by salads and substantial quantities
of citrus...Recently, Spanish food heritage has been reinvigorated in Florida by the influx of Cuban
immigrants."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (P. 110-111)
[NOTE: This book contains much more information than can be paraphrased here. If you need
more details ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

Native American foodways
"The Timucua...The earliest migration of Native Americans into present-day Florida took place over 15,000 years ago. Their diet consisted of wild game and wild plants. Few changes occurred in
their culture until sometime around 5000 BC when they added mollusks and fish, snails and shellfish to their diets. When they cooked their food it was over an open fire pit. In 2000 BC theri
cooking methods expanded with the creation of clay pots and the heating of flat stones for baking. By the time the first Europeans set foot on Florida's soil in the early 1500s AS,
the Timucuan Indians of Northeastern Florida had evolved from nomadic hunters and gatherers to skilled farmers, cultivating maize, squash, pumpkin, and beans...When the
Spanish arrived in Florida, they were greeted warmly by these...Indians. The explorers recorded their observations of the Timucua...[including] their food
preparation. They wrote of how the Indians smoked meat on wooden sticks or roasted game in a little house set on a raised platform above an open fire. The Spanish
described their technique as 'barbacoa' from which we derive the word 'barbecue.' Archaeological excavations and Spanish records indicate that the Timucua also enjoyed
coontie palm, prickly pears, wild onions, persimmons, muscadine grapes, hog and coco plums, honeycombs, and honey. Besides seafood, they also ate venison, rabbit, raccoon,
opossum, beaver, bear, gopher and sea turtles and their eggs, alligator, rattlesnake, and birds. Little is known about the spices they ate. We do know...the Timucua used salt
to preserve fish...Records show that they made extracts from fermented fruits, berries, barks, and roots...Originally, the Indians use sticks and stone blades for cooking
utensils, later advancing to carved wooden spoons and clay potter...Food was protected in woven baskets, clay pots, or wrapped in animal skins. In order to preserve foods
they salted and smoked fish and sun-dried fruits."
---Flavors of St. Augustine: an historic cookbook, Maggi Smith Hall [Tailored Tours Publicaitons:Lake Bueana Vista FL] 1999 (p. 9-10)
[Moderinized recipes offered in this section include: Florida Wild Turkey Stuffed with Sea Grapes and Nuts, Boiled Crevices (crawfish), Tagelus or Coquina
Broth, Charcoal Shrimp and Squash, Honey Tea, Indian Corn Pudding, Baked Squash, Timucuan Bean Balls, Grilled Pumpkin, and Hickory Nut Bread.]

Spanish Florida
"Since food shortages plagued the colonist, bread was used to thicken soups. Meats, when available, included beef, lamb, and especially pork. Spanish colonists hunted wild game and
ate large quanities of fish aouthough they always considered fish a poor man's diet. Garlic and olive oil were basic. Food sources also included cow and goat milk and their
by-products, onions, a variety of beans peas, squash, figs and olives. Originally brought to Spain by the Arabs, citrus, rice, and sugar cane were intorudced to the New World by
the Spanish. In the New World the Spanish discovered potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, avocado. cooca, and corn. Although the tomato may have been eaten in San Agustin during
the First Spanish Period, research has not verified this. Water was not drunk consistently, since the Spanish generally drank wine or ale. Most of the spices they used came from
the Orient: chili powder, pepper, saffron, cinnamon, cumin, mint, cilantro (coriander), and caraway. Other favorite spices were basil, dill, and mustard. The Spanish brought their use
of salt with them The paprika pant was discovered in the New World by the Spanish and dried to produce a pepper called pimenton, an authentic Spanish creation...Most
early cooking incorporated potajes...cooking of a fire with a fireproof pole extended over the flame. Attached to the pole was a pot called an olla which held stews and
soups. Cooking was also done over a charcoal fire using an iron pot atop a three-legged trivet. The Spanish barbecued and roasted meat on spits and also smoked fish
on a wooden grill, as taught by the Timucua. They used heated stones for baking breads and later advanced to building outdoor coquina ovens. The Hispanic's most inventive
method of cooking was the fogon. It originated in the Mediterranean and appeared in San Agustin sometime after the 1700s. A fogon was a coquina, waist high, stove for
indoor use...Copper pots and earthenware accompanied the Spanish to the New World. They also brought iron knives and forks, wooden spoons, wooden stirrers, macaroni
rollers, bone pastry wheels...Oil was used to protect cheeses and sausages and vinegar and wine pickled vegetables and fruits. Sun-drying was also used for preserving
fruits."
---Flavors of St. Augustine (p. 21-23)
[Modernized recipes in this book include: Carne de Res Natosa (Creamed Beef), Sopa de Chili (Chili Soup), Estofado de Puerco (Pork Stew), Albondigas de Puerco (Pork
Meatballs), Sopa de Pollo (Chicken Soup), Estofado de Frijoles (Bean Stew), Frutas de Menendez (Pomegranate fruit salad) and Pan de Claabaza (Squash Bread)]
Additional modernized period recipes courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine (October 2001)
If you need more scholarly details, we recommend: Reconstructing Historic Subsistence With an Example from Sixteenth
Century Spanish Florida/Elizabeth J. Reitz & C. Margaret Scarry.

Florida cookbooks in FoodTimeline library. Happy to scan/share recipes. Let us know what you want!

"Food historians allege that the first pork dinner eaten in America was probably consumed in 1540 in what is now Georgia. That year de Soto herded pigs
from the Everglades to the Ozarks on his exploration of the southern interior. The pigs provided food for the half-starved, foot-sore conquistadors
when they could no longer get food from the Indians. The de Soto expedition left behind the nucleus of herds of hogs and cattle when it returned to
Spain...In the years between the first settlement of Georgia and the American Revolution, various ethnic settlers contributed their native cuisine
to the colony. Many French Hugenots arrived directly from France or via South Carolina and found the city of Savannah to their liking. To this day
foods served in Savannah have a distinctly French style. German immigrants settled further up the Savannah River. The cookery of this region
included sauerkraut, Pepper Pot Soup, and other German dishes...Southern cuisine, which had beeen developing for almost a hundred years when Georgia
was settled, dominated Georgia cooking during the early years of settlement. Georgia squirrel Stew...is closely related to Brunswick Stew popular in other
parts of the South..."Plain but plentiful" food typified the cuisine of the early Georgian homes...Some of the staple foods of Georgia included rice
grown in the coastal marshes and hot breads or biscuits spread thick with homemade preserves. Chicken and ham were the main meat dishes...Georgia
housewives prided themselves on their light-textured pound cakes, which used a pound each of butter, sugar, and eggs...
W.E. Woodward, a historian of the early 1800s, described a dinner in Augusta. The meal consisted of "turtle soup followed by
brook trout fried in butter, then baked sweet potatoes and roast ham, wild turkey stuffed with walnuts and cornmeal,
accompanied by dishes of rice, asparagus, and green beans, with a cooling orange sherbet to give the guests a breather before
they tackled the cold venison, stewed corn and cheese, and the dessert of corn fritters with syrup and sweet potato pie. Madeira
wine, beer, and milk were the beverages. Oyster suppers, popular at the plantations around Savannah, were often held outdoors
by the light of the moon...Hoppin' John (black-eyed peas with rice) and green salad completed the informal feast. Other
Savannah dishes included crab souffles seasoned with nutmeg and sherry, chicken pies with hard cooked eggs and tiny
mushrooms, cream corn puddings, and fried Georgia peach pies...The food served on the small family farms of the Piedmont area
differed from that of the coastal lowlands. Corn bread was served at almost every meal, while rice was seldom seen. Dairy
products from the family cow--butter, cheese, milk, and cream--were prevalent in the cooking. Just as in the lowlands, ham and
chicken were the main meats, but venison and small game were also common, especially in the local version of Brunswick Stew...
"
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Books:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 115)

About Georgia peaches
Peaches were introduced to the New World by the Spanish when they established a settlement at St. Augustine, Florida, in
1565. Eventually peach orchards spread northward to Georgia, where the warm climate was favorable for peach cultivation. The peach
industry began to flourish in Georgia in the mid-1800s and was further expanded with the advent of refrigerated railroad cars...
The Elberta peach...was developed in Georgia...The story of the famous Elberta peach began at the Rumph plantation near
Marshallsville, Georgia in 1857. A gentleman living in Delaware sent an assortment of peach-tree puddings to his friend
Samuel Rumph. The trees flourished and in a few years produced fruit...An accidental cross-pollination fostered by wind and bees
took place. When the first trees bore fruit in 1870, they produced great golden peaches--a species new to the fruit world.
Samuel named the peach Elberta for his wife. He was one of the first fruit growers to package fruit attractively and to ship it
by sea in refrigerated containers to the Northeast. By 1889 there were 3,000 acres of peach orchards in Georgia. Today, almost every
Georgia cook has his or her own version of peach pie."
---ibid (p. 117-8)

Historic, traditional & popular recipeswe own these books & are happy to send you selected recipes...let us know what type of food you want to make!

"The food of Hawaii is a diverse blend of all the island and mainland cuisines, especially
those of Polynesia, Japan, China, and Korea, wed to Portuguese and American tastes.
Hawaii was settled by Polynesians who themselves derived form the Indomalayan region.
Except for the bat...which was inedible, Hawaii had no indigenous animals, and all
present animals on the islands were at one time or another brought to Hawaii. These
included the dog... which was bred for food, the pig...domesticated fowl...and other
animals. Fish, which is a mainstay of the Hawaiian diet, was plentiful in the island
waters, and every species was eaten, for no poisonous fish existed in the region."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 152)

"Hawaii's food today is a confusing mixture, a palimpsest of the foods of a dozen different ethnic
groups. But one can make sense of it by taking note of two salient facts: fist, that before the arrival
of the first humas, probably around the 3rd century AD, Hawaii, one of the most isolated sets of
islands in the world, contained essentially nothing edible on land. Very few species had managed
to cross those staggering distances; those that did had speciated to provide a fine natural
laboratory for evolutionary biologists. But apar from a few birds and a few ferns, there was nothing
to eat; most important, there were no edible carbohydrates. Second, since the arrival of the first
humans, Hawaii has been the terminal point of three diasporas: the great marine diaspora of the
Pacific Islanders; the great voyages of discovery of the Europeans and the Americans; and the
end of the road for Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and lately, SE Asians. From these
diverse influences, a creole food is now being created, known in the islands as Local Food.

"When the Hawaiians arrived in the islands, they brought with them some 27 or so edible
plants, as well as pigs, dogs...The most important plants were taro and sweet potato. The terrain
and climate in Hawaii proved particularly suitable for growing wetland taro...Also important were
breadfruit, various yams, sugar cane, and coconut...The staple of the diet was poi. This was
usually made with taro, but sweet potato or other starches were used when necessary...The major
protein was fish. Both pigs and dogs were eaten but they were largely reserved for the
nobility...For the bulk of the population protein was provided by wild fish and shellfish from the
streams, the reef, and the ocean. The fish was eaten both raw...and cooked...

"In 1778, Captain James Cook sighted the Hawaiian Islands. Within a matter of years they had
become a part of world trade...From the start, new animals and plants were introduced; cows,
horses, and goats, and a bewildering variety of plants...Hawaiian food and haole food (the latter
being the food of the white incomers) continued side by side with occasional input from the
Chinese who also ended up on the islands...On ceremonial occasions, there would be luaus at
which largely Hawaaian foods was served: poi, of course, and dried fish and shrimp, luau pig
baked in the imu, seaweed, and taro leaves, and a dessert made of coconut milk thickened with
Polynesian arrowroot...

"The food landscape of Hawaii began changing dramatically once the sugar plantations began
to flourish following the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1876...In order,
substantial number of Chinese, Japanese, Okinawans, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Portuguese from
the Atlantic Islands, and Filipinos arrived in the islands between the 1880s and the 1930s...Each
of these groups demanded their own food on the plantations and the plantation stores went quite
some way to accomodate them...

"Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, certain forces began to produce a creole food, Local
Food...One was the arrival of home economists at the university...Trained largely at the Columbia
Teachers College in New York, these women recorded the diet of the Japanese, established the
food values of Hawaiian foods and a range of tropical fruits, trained large numbers of home
economics teachers and school cafeteria managers. Surprisingly sympathetic to different ethnic
foods on the islands, they urged brown rice...milk...and ensured that the food in the public school
system was an all-American diet of hamburger, meat loaf, Salisbury steak, and mashed potatoes.
This exposure to American food was reinforced for the many who joined up following the bombing
of Pearl Harbor in the second World War...Now, at least in public, most of the population of
Hawaii eats Local Food much of the time...The centerpiece of Local Food is the Plate Lunch
available from lunch wagons and from numerous small restaurants...It consists of 'two
scoop'...sticky rice...a large portion of meat, usually cooked in Asian style, a portion of macaroni
salad or potato salads, and perhaps a lettuce leaf of dab of kimch'i on the side."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
373-4)
[NOTE: Home Economic specialists published several books to help newly relocated mainland homemakers:

"Food of Hawaii can be separated into two categories; Hawaiian food, the food of the native
islanders, and local food, the eclectic blend of the cuisines of later settlers. Before explorers,
missionaries, and immigrants arrived, Hawaiian food consisted of fresh ingredients that were
prepared raw or cooked simply, using broiling, boiling, and roasting techniques. Protein sources
included poultry, pig, and dog. Fish and other seafood, such as turtles, sea urchins, limpets, and
shellfish, were also consumed but in modest quantities."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University
Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 591)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian
to help you find a copy.]

"Much earlier, the Japanese had had a tremendous effect on the food in the Hawaiian Islands, but
it did not take Hawaii's statehood to make mainland American practitioners of island cookery.
Bananas and pineapples had become important in the kitchens of New England women whose
seafaring men had brought the tropical fruits back from various ports of call...The fiftieth state
acquired a cuisine as international as any of its sisters. Hawaii was characteristically Polynesian
until the nineteenth century, and its diet of fish and fruit remained unmodified until the coming of the
missionaries and clipper ships from New England. Dried meat and salted fish had fed American
sailors, and these foods became a part of Hawaiian tradition--as pipikuala, the jerked beef that is
broiled in tiny pieces and served with a sweet-sour cause, and as lomi lomi, thin fillets of salted
salmon that some New Yorkers have described as better in its indigenous way than lox (smoked
salmon) from their own favorite delicatessens. Mixed with chopped onions and tomatoes, lomi
lomi is habitually served as a salad. Salmon, to the early Hawaiians, was common enough to be
known as "the pig in the sea." Other fish were used after the coming of the missionaries to
produce such things as fish chowder in basic Yankee fashion, and Scots who come to the islands
as technicians and platnation overseers added their native scones and shortbreads to the daily
fare of thousands of Hawaiians who generations before had adopted the Portuguese wheat bread
of the first European immigrants. Cornmeal and red bean soup, also brought by the Portuguese,
have been accepted as Hawaiian by islanders of all ethnic roots, and rather than submitting to a
single style, island cooks have incorporated many European dishes, along with those from
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean sources, developing a culinary tradition that may be among the
most festive if the world. The traditional Hawaiian feast called the luau is the ultimate of
American picnics, cookouts, and barbecues, and it has added much to the variety of
outdoor feasting on the American mainland, especially in California."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage
Books:New York] 1981] (p. 167-8)

Idaho potatoes are world famous!
"The first potato grower in Idaho was Henry Harmon Spalding, a Presbyterian
missionary, who planted potatoes in 1836 to teach the Nez Perce Indians how to provide
food for themselves other than by hunting. Homesteaders grew potatoes to sell to the
miners who came throughout the state. The Mormons, however, were the first to grow
potatoes commercially. By the time Idaho was admitted to the Union in 1890, its potatoes
were famous for their superior quality. Luther Burbank...developed the Russet Burbank
potato that is today called the Idaho Potato. In 1872 he perfected a long white potato with
a rough russet skin. Adapted to the Northwest, the Russet Burbank has made Idaho the
leading potato producer in the nation."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 223)

"Several huckleberry species are native to Idaho, all belonging to genus Vaccinium section Myrtillus. The
most common and popular is the black or thin-leaved huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum). Plants
grow slowly, taking up to 15 years to reach full maturity. Black huckleberries produce single plump, dark
purple berries in the axils of leaves on new shoots. They depend on an insulating cover of snow for survival
during winter and have not been successfully grown commercially. Black huckleberries grow at elevations
between 2,000 and 11,000 feet with many productive colonies between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. Black
huckleberries usually grow from 1 to 6 feet tall and produce berries up to 1/2 inch in diameter.
Huckleberries are a favorite food of bears."

About Idaho's culinary heritage
"Fur trapping and trading with the Indians provided the first source of wealth in Idaho in
the early part of the 1800s. By the 1840s...settlers began to arrive to farm the land. Gold
was discovered in 1860, and with the opening of the transcontinental railroad, the
population of Idaho increased rapidly as mining became the quickest way to get rich.
Along with the miners came Chinese immigrants, who took up the claims of Caucasian
miners after they had moved on to more productive claims...As mining declined for the
hardworking Chinese, they moved into trades and vegetable farming. Idahoans began to
rely on their local Chinese vegetable farmer to deliver fresh vegetables door-to-door. The
Chinese raised vegetables on terraced mountain terrain, becuase the land was
cheaper...Some of the first European settlers in Idaho were Finns, Welsh, and Basques,
who came to work in the mines and to raise sheep.. The Finns brought with them a love
for Lobinmuhennos, a salmon chowder, and the Welsh brought Bara Brith, a raisin and
currant bread. The Basque preferred lamb stew and split pea soup. Chorizo, a spicy
sausage, attributed by some to Basque origin, is still being produced in Idaho. In the early
days Basque sheepherders made a sourdough bread on which they slashed the sign of a
cross before baking. This act reflected their devout religious feelings. The first piece of
the baked bread was always given to their sheepdog. The primary food of the early
settlers was bread and beans...Most small settlements had a mom-and-pop general store in
which the smell of kerosene and coffee permeated the air...Northern Idaho is mostly dry
farmed, and wheat, dry peas, and lentils are the predominant crops...Barley and hops for
making beer are grown in northern Idaho...Herbs and spices, broccoli, and small amount
of asparagus constitute the remainder of the crops in Idaho...Treasure Valley in Canyon
County is knowns for its mint and spearmint cultivation...in Idaho's Magic Valley more
trout is raised per square mile than anywhere else in the world...Many homegrown apples
are combined with ham in a casserole. The apples are also used to make jelly, which is
mixed with mayonnaise for a salad dressing. Prunes, another home-grown orchard
product, are often used for prune butter, prune-whip pies, and spicy prune
puddings...Huckleberry pie is an Idaho specialty."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 222-5)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Country Potatoes (p. 224) and Lentils with Red
Pepper Sauce (p. 225).]

Recommended reading:Bacon, Beans and Galantines: Food and Foodways
on the Western Mining Frontier/Joseph R. Conlin

[1930s]
The Great Depression. Al Capone sponsored soup kitchens in Chicago:
"Three meals are served each day, including Sundays. Breakfast consists of coffee and a
sweet roll, and dinner and supper of soup, bread and coffee, with a second or third
helping permitted."
---Capone Feeds 3,000 a Day in Soup Kitchen, New York Times, November 15,
1930 (p. 4)

Need Illinois recipes? The Legendary Illinous Cookbook: Historic and Culinary Lore from the Prairie State, John L.
Leckel offers comtemporary favorites. The "legends" in this book are not food-related; they offer tidbits of history about
selected towns. We also have a copy of the Chicago Daily News Cookbook [1930]. This gem offers suggested daily menus,
ten-minute meals, and holiday fare. Perfect for recreating Depression-era middle-class fare. Happy to send selected pages from
either book (just let us know which type of food (cake? salad?) or menu (New Year's Dinner? Saturday fall breakfast?) you need.
NOTE: As true with most state/city/community cookbooks, the recipes are popular with the local people. They were not
necessarily "invented" there.

Prehistoric & native American subsistence
"The first major cultural stage that has been roughly dated by archaeologists falls in the period of 8000 to 1000 B.C. Indians of that time were still hunters, fishers,
and gatherers of mussels, berries, roots, and nuts. They used fire and made spears, stone axes, knives, and scrapers, along with bone fishhooks and drills. Probably
they lived in caves temporarily, but they cultivated no gardens, made no pottery, and had no bows and arrows. Through the millennia, they adapted more
efficiently to their environments. Hundred of sites in the late Archaic tradition are found in Indiana, indicating an increased population. Mussel shells left after the
meat was extracted created mounds, sometimes fifteen feet high and covering more than an acre..."
---Indiana: A History, Howard H. Peckham [W.W. Norton:New York] 1978(p. 14-15)

Native Americans
"The last and most complex culture is called Mississippian and is dated A.D. 900 to A.D. 1500. It is marked by intensive cultivation of corn, beans, squash, melons,
and other foods, which in turn required and permitted community settlements...Not until after the middle of the seventeenth century did new Indians enter Indiana.
The Miami drifted down from Wisconsin around the heard of Lake Michigan, and were followed by the Potawatomi. The Kickapoo and Wea came across
northern Illinois and pushed the Miami farther east...In the northern and extreme western parts of the future state, the tribes formed villages, where the women
cultivated gardens...prepared the meals, while the braves hunted, fished...The gradual appearance of the French traders gratified them, because the white
newcomers raised the Indians' standard of living. The Indians could barter furs for metal pots and pans, wool blankets, ruffled cotton shirts, iron tools, steel knives,
and traps, jews' harps, paint, and muskets that made their hunting more effective. They also gained access to French brandy."
---Indiana: A History (p. 17-18)

Shawnee
"Shawnee economy, combining hunting with agriculture and some food gathering, had been strongly oriented toward the fur trade since the early eighteenth
century...The most important game animals were deer buffalo, bears, mountain lions, and turkeys...During the summer women tended crops and gathered wild plant
foods while men fished in the vicinity or set out on deer hunts. After the final maize harvest in August the community...prepared to move to its winter quarters.
Although fields were owned by individual households they were grouped together into a single area...Women seem to have planted collectively..."
---Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant general editor [Smithsonian Institution:Washington DC] 1978, Volume 15: Northeast
(p. 624)

Kickapoo
"Traditional Kickapoo subsistence followed the usual pattern of agricultures combined with hunting and food gathering."
---Handbook of North American Indians (p. 658)

"In their aboriginal territory, the Kickapoo relied on farming, hunting, fishing, and collecting wild rice, roots, berries, and nuts to sustain themselves. They raise corn,
beans, and squash and store the surplus in underground pits lined with bark. The men hunted deer, elk, bear, beaver, squirrel, skunk, otter, and lynx with bow and
flint-tipped arrows or with snares and fished with bone hooks or nets, and with snares of woven fibers. Each fall, all able-bodied persons went on a three- to
four-month hunting expedition for buffalo. The meat was smoked and sun-dried...After the European contact, the Kickapoo added watermelon, melon, apples,
and peaches to their diets. They also replaced their stone tools, clay pottery, and hide clothing with French articles."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (p. 91)

Miami
"The Miami practiced the mixed hunting-farming economy typical of their region...The buffalo, formerly an important game animal, disappeared long before
1800...Wild tubers and roots were extensively used...Extensive maize fields surrounded Miami villages."
---Handbook of North American Indians (p. 682)

"Through cross-breeding, Miami women developed the delectable white or "Silver Queen" maize...The Miami were a more prairie than forest group, and their
principal game was the buffalo; hunts were communal..."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (p. 132)

Potawatomi
"Potawatomi economic and social life was tied closely to the rhythms of nature...The Potawatomi fished with trap, weir, net, hook, and harpoon. They used long
cylindrical "hoop" nets in combination with dams across streams to trap fish and harpoons with deer horn or stone points for taking fish from lakes or streams.
They also gathered a wide variety of natural foods: maple sugar, choke cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, roots of several kinds, plums, and grapes.
The animals they hunted for food included bear, deer, elk, buffalo, squirrel, muskrat, raccoon, porcupine, wolf (a ceremonial delicacy for certain chiefs), turtles,
ducks, and geese. Dogs were the only domestic animal eaten, and then mainly for ritual purposes. The food collected or grown was prepared and stored against the
winter's need. Many foods were dried and stored in bark containers and pottery jars. Squash was sliced in rings and smoked or sun-dried, then stored. After
parboiling, corn was scraped from the cob, then dried and made into preserves, or when fully ripe dried or parched. Cranberries were strung on strings and
smoked inside the house. Most meat not consumed immediately was sliced, dried, and smoked. Ducks, geese, and turkeys, however, were pickled in brine, then
smoked and stored, while fish were dried and smoked. Maple sugar was used as a condiment more often than salt."
---Handbook of North American Indians (p. 734-5)

"Like so much of their lives, Potawatomi subsistence patterns revolved around the changing seasons. They fished nearby lakes and streams with hooks and lines...
Though their principal crop was corn they also raised peas, beans, pumpkins, squash, and melon...They also gathered berries nuts, roots, maple sugar and wild
rice."
---Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes (p. 260)

European settlersConner Prarie
Living History Museum has plenty of information about 19th century foods. Check
"hearthside receipts" for plenty of interesting (modernized) choices. Biscuits are easy!

"The first winter in Indiana was hard for the pioneers who had come from North
Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky around 1800. They were forced to exist on such food as
bear-meat bacon, ash cakes made from acorns, and coffee made from seeds...Abraham
Lincoln's first home in Indiana was a lean-to, which was later converted into a one-room
cabin with a loft. The winter of 1816 was a harsh one, and the Lincolns lived on water
from melted snow, wild game, and some borrowed corn and wheat. This primitive food
was typical among the early settlers of Indiana...The 1850s are considered Indiana's
Golden Age of Agriculture, when the state ranked high in the raising of hogs, corn, sheep,
and wheat...Improved transportation...brought European immigrants to Indiana. Each
nationality brought with them their culinary traditions...The favorite Hoosier delicacy of
onion pie can be traced to the Polish, Lithuanian, and Hungarian immigrants...Wild
American persimmons grew in Indiana and were used in puddings each fall...Fried
biscuits also became an Indiana specialty. They are made with a yeast dough, cut into
rounds, and deep fried. While still hot the biscuits are split, spread with soft butter, and
eaten immediately...Pork cookery is another well-developed culinary art in
Indiana...Indiana has been growing corn for popping since the time of the early settlers,
who learned of it from the Indians."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992
(p. 145-6)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Persimmon Pudding and Ducking with Wild Rice
Stuffing.]

Recommended reading:Feeding Our Families: First in the series memories of Hoosier homemakers/Eleanor Arnold editor

Love and Tangle
3 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons milk
flour
Mix the eggs and sugar and add flour to make it thick enough to roll. Roll in thin strips about six inches long and three
inches wide, fold double by bringing one end up to the other. Beginning an inch or half inch from the folded end, cut several
slits down the open end. Drop in hot fat and fry until light brown. Drain and sprinkle with powdered sugar." (p. 110)

Sheila Hibben's National Cookbook: A Kitchen Americana [c. 1932] offers these Indiana recipes: Beefsteak smothered in
onions, Crumble tart, Gingerbread, Strawberry shortcake and White Fruit Cake. If you want any of these let us know.

"In the pork-producing states of Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois, the traditional sandwich of choice is known as "the tenderloin" or, in some areas, "the breaded
tenderloin." The sandwich is made from king-size boneless pork tenderloin that has been pounded to about a quarter-inch thick, breaded, and then fried, deep
fried, or sometimes grilled. These...are generally served on toasted hamburger buns or Kaiser rolls, and condiments of choice consist of mustard, pickle, and
onion...According to road-food experts Jane and Michael Stern, Nicholas Freinstein of Huntington, Indiana, created the pork tenderloin sandwich. Freinstein
peddled sandwiches from a basket before building a street cart that included a small grill, enabling him to cook tenderloins and burgers. Eventually, in 1908,
Freinstein openend Nick's Kitchen in downtown Huntington. According to legend, his brother Jake, having suffered severe frostbite and the loss of his fingers, used
his stumps to tenderize the slices of pork loin. Nick's competitors quickly adapted the tendering process by using wooden hammers or mechanical tenderizing
devices, thereafter making it an integral part of the preparation of the tenderloin sandwich."
---American Sandwich: Great Eats From All 50 States, Becky Mercuri [Gibbs Smith:Layton UT] 2004 (p. 43)
[NOTE: This book contains a recipe.]

"What clam chowder is to New England or grits are to the South, the breaded pork tenderloin is to the Hoosier state. It's so indigenous to Indiana, we dispense
with the reference to pork all together, as in "I'll have the breaded tenderloin sandwich." But venture much outside the Midwest, and folks will probably look at you
like lobsters were coming out of your ears if you were to order such a thing. "Indianans are fanatical about them; in many town cafes, they are more popular than
hamburgers," write syndicated food columnists Jane and Michael Stern in this month's issue of Gourmet magazine.
To appreciate this unique Hoosier tradition, it's important to understand the culture that made the tenderloin possible. Steve Jones, a food historian and former
columnist with the Marion Chronicle-Tribune, believes "without a shadow of a doubt" that the tenderloin originated in the days of home butchering. Back then, the
meat would be flattened with the broad side of an ax, rolled in flour and dropped in a kettle of hot grease. According to Jones' research, the first place serving
tenderloins to the public was Nick's Kitchen in downtown Huntington.
Legend has it that Nick Freinstein started selling the breaded pork cutlets out of a pushcart before he opened his restaurant in 1908. His bother, Jake, who had
lost his fingers to frostbite after passing out drunk in the snow, was employed to pound and tenderize the loins. As the years went by, the tenderloin grew in
popularity and is now on the menu at more than half the restaurants in the state. Usually, it's the degree of thickness, or a secret recipe or style of breading that
separates one breaded pork tenderloin sandwich from another. "Everyone who sells them thinks theirs is the best," Jones says. "They are very loyal to the
tenderloin that they prefer." Nick's is now run by Jean Anne Bailey, who took over from her father, who bought the place in 1969."
---"THE DISH: Indiana is one big breaded pork tenderloin state," John Silcox, The Journal Gazette, 1 January 2003 (p. 1D)

Pioneer Kansas foodways
"Early pioneer settlers of the Kansas territory found life and any type of agriculture to be
primative...Cornmeal, the staple of the early settlers' food, was baked into various types
of bread and was the basis of puddings. If the settlers grew some wheat, they also baked
wheat bread. Pork was the popular meat, and in season green vegetables were available
from the garden. Root vegetables were stored in a dugout cellar for winter use. There was
no fruit, since there were no fruit trees. Men struggled to break fields out of the stubborn
prairie sod and to cut any available wood for building and fuel. The women worked
equally hard. They did all the cooking... and preparing of food for winter storage...When
the German Mennonites from Russia arrived in Kansas in the 1870s, they found parched
land. Local farmers who were depending upon spring wheat were almost starving. Being
frugal people, each Mennonite family had brought with them seeds of a special wheat
they had been growing on the steppes of Russia. These new wheat seeds flourished and
made wheat growing in Kansas viable...The early Mennonites shared many of their
recipes with the Kansas settlers, such as Piroshki, a Russian dish which the Germans
grew to like. It is a flaky pastry filled with ground meat and eaten with sour cream.
Buttermilk pie, cinnamon-flavored apple pie, and Bubbat (hot rolls with smoked sausage
fillings) also became part of Kansas cuisine. Another Mennonite dish was a meat roll
filled with onions, bacon, and sweet pickle and then baked with sour cream. It si similar
to the German Roulanden. In the summer cold plum soup with raisins and milk was a
refreshing repast. Many early pioneers, however, did not have the food variety of the
Mennonites. Pancakes were the typical staple of early Kansans. Served with sorghum and
gravy, they were dinner for many of the pioneer who very rarely had meat. When they ate
meat, it was usually dried buffalo. Later, when beef was available, barbecues and chuck-wagon stews became a part of Kansas cuisine, especially in cattle country...Like those in
other Midwestern states, Kansas immigrants retained some of their food traditions--Swedish almond cakes, Bohemian beer and sausages, English pancakes, and Scottish
scones."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992
(p. 179-181)

Kansas dining advice, 1886:
"Table Etiquette. This book being pre-eminently a Kansas production, the publishes may be justified in suggesting that directions
in regard to table etiquette which are suited to the customs and habits of a community of wealth and leisure, are not adapted
to the needs of an eager, busy, working people. While many have brought with them from older homes the knowldege and
appreciation of elaborate tables, they find here neither the time, occasion, nor conveniences for such display. Attempts to ape
the habits if foreighn families, who have numerous trained servants and extensive establishments, are but foolish and
ruinous. It is to these efforts that we owe the almost total loss of social life, and the ruined health of American
housewifes. When our homes can be opened to the reception of an evening company, and refreshments confined to the passing of a
cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit, we shall then have taken the first step toward a social life without care or worry. Food served
gracefully, and without confusion, renders the plainest meal a season of enjoyment. The manner in which the table is laid, and the
mode in which food is prepared and served, influence not only the eye, but the appetite...The great purpose of rules of etiquette is,
to inculcate good manners, and thus render us mutually agreeable...Chief among the rules for table manners is to eat
slowly, as if it were a pleasure you desired to prolong, rather than a duty to be over with as quickly as possibe. Do not
bring prejudices, dislikes, or annoyances to the table; they would spoil the best dinner. Respect the hour of meals; you have no
right to destroy the comfort of the famly bu your want of punctuality. Find little fault at the time of eating, and praise
wherever you can. Have as much variety in your food as possible, but not many dishes. Always have your table served neatly, and you
will never have cause to be ashamed. Be hosptitable; if it is only a crust and a cup of cold water, and is clean, and good of its
kind, there is no reason to blush for it; and with sincere friends the hearty welcome will make amends for the absence of
rich viands."
---The Kansas Home Cook-Book: consisting of recipes contributed by the Ladies of
Leavenworth and other Cities and Towns/Mrs. C. H. Cushing and Mrs. B. Gray, facsimile 1886 reprint,
[Creative Cookbooks:Monterey, CA] 2001(p. 296)
[NOTE: your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy of this book.]

Variation: Strawberry Chess Pie
1/2 cup currant jelly
1 pt. Fresh strawberries, washed and stemmed.
Bake then cool "Mildred's Chess Pie" for at least 30 minutes. Melt the currant jelly (in a microwave
or over a pan of boiling water). Brush the top of the pie with the jelly. Place 1/4 inch thick slices of
strawberries on top and brush the strawberries with the currant jelly. Place in a 350 degree oven
for 3 minutes. Let cool about 15 minutes before serving. An additional garnish could be mint
leaves.

[1950]
"When the Kentucky Derby is run at the end of next week, many of the spectators will have been fortified to accept the
disappointments it inevitably brings by having eaten a Derby Day breakfast. A charming Louisville hostess...came in heasterday to
talk about the menu for this party, traditionally held in many households in her city about 10:30 on the morning of that great
racing event. Far from being a matter of coffee, eggs and bacon, it festively starts off with a mint julep or Kentucky toddy and
proceeds to ham, chicken or steaks, salads and elaborate dessert...The menu and recipes...serve as an interesting and practical
introduction to the cookery of the Blue Grass State...For Derby Day breakfasting...Churchill Downs Mint Juleps, Baked ham
(preferably Kentucky country-cured), Beaten biscuits, Batter bread, Grape jelly, Pickles, Loose-leaved lettuce salad,
Transparent pie, Coffee."
---"News of Food: Delicacies of the Old South," Jane Nickerson, New York Times,, April 27, 1950 (p. 36)
[NOTE: this article includes recipes for Mint Julep, Batter Bread and Transparent Pie. The cookbook referenced is
Out of Kentucky Kitchens/Mrs. Morris Flexner.]

[1974]
"One of America's most captivating cities, Louisville, Ky., has long been noted for warm hospitality. Thousands of people from
around the world flock there for the unending round of parties on Derby weekend, the social highlight of the year. The gaiety
of the breakfasts, luncheons, dinners and banquets is an important part of the exciting "run for the roses."...Fried ham
and red-eye gravy is one of the state's great treats. Thick slices of ham are first soaked in milk and then fried in fat, cut
from the edges. The gravy is made simply by adding a small amount of water and black pepper to the drippings. When boiled,
stirred and scraped to the desired consistency, the gravy is poured over the ham or sometimes over grits or beaten biscuits.
Another local specialty is Bibb lettuce, developed and named after a native colonel who grew it in the limestone soil...On the morning
of the race, Derby breakfasts are fashionable. Tables set with elegant appointments offer such traditional fare as Kentucky
ham and bacon, scrambled eggs, spoon bread grits, hot biscuits, Kentucky scramble, fried apples, and fresh whole strawberries or peach
desserts, as well as copious libations. After the race, guests go to buffets or dinners where the fare might be thinly sliced ham and beaten
biscuits, fried chicken, sliced turkey, candied sweet potatoes, Bibb lettuce salad, pickled peaches or watermelon pickle, hickory
nut cake, strawberry shortcake, or bourbon chocolate pie. The Sunday morning breakfast may offer chicken or turkey hash, sausages,
thin batter or pancakes, pickles, and fresh fruit with small cakes or cookies. Featured at the annual gathering of the
Kentucky Colonels during Derby Week is the traditional dish, Burgoo...originally a French stew...
cooking up the famous dish at festive occasions...800 pounds of meat, one dozen squirrels, 24 gallons corn, 240 pounds fat hens
and five bushels of tomatoes--and it usually served hundreds."
---"Racing Horses, Eating Well," Kay Shaw Nelson, Washington Post, May 2, 1974 (p. F1)

[1978]
"So far as horse racing-fans are concerned, the main event that will take place in Louisville this coming Saturday at 5 p.m. is the
104th running of the Kentucky Derby. But to serious eaters and drinkers, that two-and-a-half-minute event represents merely a
brief interlude in what is really a two-and-a-half-day continuous feast. Derby time...is party time...given over to a series of
buffet cocktail parties and dinners, brunches, lunches and suppers, and lots of nibbling in between. Dining tables of polished
mahogany or Kentucky cherry set with heavily ornate family silver, the finest linens; the thickest frosted silver julep mugs
sporting sprigs of fresh mint, and centerpieces of roses with tulips virtually groan under the weight of the richest, most
elegant specialties this elegant part of the South has to offer...some of the parties are rustic. Burgoo...which is really
a sort of soup-stew with chicken and vegetables, is made outdoor and simmers for hours in big iron cauldrons. People get their
juleps in silver mugs or tin cups and when they finish drinking, the burgoo is ladled into the empty mugs. For breakfasts, they
serve scrambled eggs, grits with melted butter, fried apples, fried tomatoes, country ham made with red eye gravy, beaten biscuits or
spoon bread or crisp corn cakes. For dinners and suppers they do...baked country ham that may be glazed but most traditionally
not, burgoo, a salad of Kentucky limestone lettuce, which Northerners call bibb, biscuits, corn pudding and then all the
desserts--the pecan bourbon cake, the Derbytown pie with its melting chocolate and crunchy nuts, bourbon balls, strawberries,
apricot sherbet and all kinds of other things."
---"Derby Day: A Winner for Food Lovers," Mimi Sheraton, New York Times, May 3, 1978 (p. C1)

[1982]
"Welcome to the Kentucky Derby party. From Florida to Alaska, people will gather this Saturday to drink juleps, eat country ham and
and beaten biscuits, and watch at least two minutes of horse racing."
---"On Derby Day, the Juleps Bloom From Florida to the Philippines," Heywood Klein, Wall Street Journal, April 29, 1982 (p. 31)

Churchill Downs Web site offers a wealth of historical and cultural information regarding
the Kentucky Derby--excellent for background. Given the fact that extravagant Derby-Eve
parties, elaborate brunches, major festivals and
special treats are an integral part of the Derby tradition is seems odd that there are no links to
food on this site. Taste of Derby
celebrates this event with elite chefs. The Kentucky Derby Museum Cook Book [1986] offers a party checklist & many recipes
(but no suggested menus). Happy to send/share pages. Let us know what you want!

State foods
"Official" state foods are designated by law. Louisiana's edible state symbols are:
"The honeybee is a social, honey-producing bee, recognized as the most economically
valuable of all insects. This reputation commonly rests on its production of honey and
beeswax. The honeybee's greatest usefulness, however, is actually in the pollination of crops,
including fruits, nuts, vegetables, and forage crops, and many uncultivated plants that prevent
erosion by keeping topsoil from being carried into the ocean. The honeybee was made our
official insect in 1977."

"Milk was adopted as the official drink of Louisiana in 1983."

"South Louisiana is the crawfish capital of the world, supporting a multimillion dollar a year
industry. The crawfish in appearance greatly resembles the lobster, but is very much smaller.
Its color varies with the water in which it lives and its variety. Although it is found in swamps
and marshes throughout the state, the best wild populations occur in the overflow basins of
the Atchafalaya, Red, and Pearl Rivers. Crawfish farms have also been established where the
crustaceans are cultivated for local use and for export to other states. The crawfish was
adopted as State Crustacean in 1983."

"The alligator was adopted as Louisiana's state reptile in 1983. It lives in waters and low
lands of the state and other locations of the southeast United States. Resembling a lizard in
shape, grown males (which are larger than females) reach a length of 11 to 12 feet and weigh
450 to 500 pounds. When grown, its color is dull gray and dark olive. Alligators provide
better care for their young than most reptiles do, protecting the young for a year or more.
Once common, their numbers were reduced enough to be classified as endangered. Regulated
hunting is allowed since the designation was changed to threatened in 1977."

"The official state freshwater fish is the white perch (pomoxis annularis) also known as
sac-au-lait and white crappie. It was adopted in 1993."
Source: Louisiana
State Home Page

"European fishermen discovered the fishing grounds off the coast of Maine almost 50 years before permanent settlers arrived in New England. These
fishermen came from France, Spain, Portugal, and later, England...These fishermen stayed only long enough to cure their fish and repair their oft-battered
boats before the long voyage back to Europe...Permanent English settlers began to arrive in Maine in the mid-1620s...By 1630 the settlers had established
their own permanent fishing stations allong the coast of Maine, and til the mid-1700s cod fishing was their principal industry...As the popularity of cod
declined in the mid-1800s, mackerel became more important...Preserving fish by smoking was an Old World method, and herring lent itself particularly
well to the process...The development of the canning industry in 1873 expanded the market for Maine fish...Great schools of solvery sardines...were first
harvested by the American Indians...Lobster was a favorite food of the coastal Indians...Commerical lobster fishing began in the late 1800s...Potatoes
became an important crop in the 1800s, and Maine led the nation in potato production into the 1950s...The young tender unfurled fronds of the
fiddlehead fern are a specialty of Maine. The Indians taught the early settlers how to gather them in the forests and cook them...Their flavor is a
combination of asparagus, broccoli, and artichokes."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992

Why did this cake become a state symbol?
"Maryland has an official cat, insect and even an official dinosaur. Now one state delegate wants to add a hallmark 10-layer cake form the
Eastern Shore to the list of state symbols. Del. Page Elmore, E.-Somerset, plans to propose naming the many-layered Smith
Island cake the state's official dessert. To boost the bill, Elmore cooked up a sweet bribe--450 slices of the cake were delivered
Tuesday to state lawmakers and their aides. 'I make a pretty mean sweet potato pie, but oh, this is good,' said Del.
Melony Griffith, D.-Prince Georges, who tucked into a thin slice of the most common flavor of Smith Island cake: yellow cake in 10
centimeter-thick layers with chocolate frosting. Elmore hopes his bill will give a boost to Smith Island, which has only about 250
year-round residents. Islanders historically mae their living pulling crabs and oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, but pollution has hurt the seafood
industry and better jobs on the mainland have sapped Smith Island's working population. 'It's economic development for Smith Isalnd and lower
Eastern Shore bakeries,' Elmore said, wathcing volunteers unload more than a dozen boxes of cake slices. Florida named Key
Lime Pie its official pie in 2006, while Massachusetts picked its official dessert in 1996. Smith Island cakes dome in dozens fo
flavors, including pineapple, banana and coconut. Islanders trace the cake's origin to the British colonists who settled on the island, auing the cake
resembles an English torte. Smith Island cakes were traditionally packed in a waterman's lunch pail when he plied the Chesapeake, but now most are
sold to tourists...about 10 women on the island make a living selling Smith Island cakes. Most of the sell for $20 to $30 , with a towering
16-layer cake goinf for $49.99."
---"Marylanyd's Eastern Shore Touts Its Cake," Associated Press, Daily News-Record [Harrisonbburg VSA],
January 23, 2008 (p. A6)

"According to one recent writer, "baked beans and succotash may be the closest to signature dishes for [New England]--one based on
Old World traditions and the other on those of the New World."...As for the Old World origins of baked beans, peas or beans
and bacon have been claimed to be among the oldest of English dishes. Despite the generally low position of beans in English food-status
hierarchies, one version of beans and bacon is said to have been enjoyed by the medieval gentry. The specifically baked
form of bean potage was prevalent among Staffordshire yeomen, who soaked their dried beans overnight, then baked them along with
honey-and-mustard-cured ham and onions or leeks in a narrow-necked earthenware pot especially reserved for the purpose. This
"dark, sweet cassoulet" has been identified as the immediate progenitor of New England baked beans....There is a tradition, that, like
succotash, baked beans was of native origin. "Beans were abundant, and were baked by the Indians in earthen pots just as we bake
them today," wrote Alice Morse Earle in 1898. Three-quarters of a century later, Sally Smith Booth was not the first to include the
use of underground beanholes among the native methods of baking beans: "Indians probably originated this dish, for many tribes
baked bean stews in earthen pots placed into pit and covered with hot ashes." However, as Howard S. Russell has acknowledged, there
is no direct evidence of natives' baking beans, either in earthenware pots or in beanholes in the ground. On the other hand, baked
beans "prepared by the bean-hole method were by far the most important single food" in late-nineteenth-century Maine lumbering
camps. A vogue for outdoor and wilderness experience, including culinary experience, that was supposed to approximate the lifeways
of the North American Indians, had emerged at this time and gave encoruagement to the idea that another form of popular
underground New England cookery, the clambake, had originated with the Indians. Similar notions about the native sources of beanhole
baked beans may also have germinated in this cultural soil, so to speak. Skepticism regarding romaticized conception of native
and settler culinary practices should not, however, lead us to dismiss altogether the possibility of a relationship between the
bean cookery of the two groups...So although the English clearly brought with them a well-established tradition of bean-and-bacon
pottage that, in at least one of its variants, was baked in a beanpot in an oven, it is also possible that the natives they
encountered upon arrival had a similar tradition of preparing legume pottage by baking. Morever, the immigrants did not scruple to integrate
New World beans into the Old World pottage, just as they incorporated New World grain into their their bread."
---America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking, Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald [University of North Carolina
Press:Chapel Hill NC] 2004 (p. 51-52)

"Boston baked beans. A dish of navy beans made with molasses and salt pork or bacon. Some argue
that baked beans were introduced to the colonists by the Indians, but novelist Kenneth Roberts, in an
essay on "The Forgotton Marrowbones," printed in Marjorie Mosser's Foods of Old New England
(1957), argues that baked beans had long been a traditional Sabbath dish among North African and
Spanish Jews, who called the dish "skanah."...Nevertheless, the dish clearly became associated with
Boston, whose Puritan settlers baked beans on Saturday, served them that night for dinner, for Sunday
breakfast with codfish cakes and Boston Brown Bread, and again for Sunday lunch, because no other
cooking was allowed during the Sabbath, which extended to Sunday evening. Sometimes the
housewives would hand over their pots of uncooked beans to a community oven, often located within a
tavern, to be baked. Because of the association between Bostonians and beans, the city became to be
called "Bean Town." A recipe for baked beans of this type was printed in Lydia Maria Child's "The
American Frugal Housewife in 1832, though the term "Boston baked beans" dates to the 1850s."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p.
36)

"Every Saturday since the pilgrims came, true New Englanders have baked beans made with brown bread. In the old days it was thought
sinful to cook on Sunday, and Sunday began at 6 o'clock on Saturday. Before that the house was swept and dusted and preparations
made for a quiet, reverential Sabbath. Sundays are not as reverential now as they used to be, but the Saturday cooking tradition
still persists. Beans are a salvation because the could be prepared on Saturday. On Sunday the family had them with brown bread
for breakfast. After breakfast, the pot was popped back in the oven and the family set out for church. And all the time the beans
were in the oven, the whole house smelled of simmering pork and sweet molasses, which is a lovely odor and guaranteed to whet the
most persnickety appetite. When services were over and the family came home from church, it was mid-afternoon and time for
dinner. Then the pot was taken out again--and everybody had some more beans. We prepare them just as our ancestors did, but now we
begin the ritual on Friday night. "Boston Baked Beans
1 qt. dried pea beans
1 medium-sized onion, peeled
1/2 lb. salt pork
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup molasses
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard 1. On Friday night put the beans to soak in a kettle full of cold water. In the morning pour the water off, cover with fresh
water and bring slowly to a boil. Simmer until you can blow the skins off. To do this, take a spoonful of beans from the pot.
If you should put your face down into the steam, you might get badly burned. 2. When the skins blow off (it will take an hour or more of simmering), drain the beans and place about one cup in bean pot.
Add onion. Add remaining beans until the pot is almost filled. 3. Score the salt pork to the rind and force down among the beans until it just shows at the top of the pot. Combine remaining
ingredients and mix with beans. Add enough hot water to fill pot. The pork should protrude a little above the water line so that it
can brown nicely. 4. Bake in 300 degree oven for at least 8 hours. The juice should bubble at the top of the pot all day. Add more water if necessary during
baking time.
One of the comforting things about baked beans is that you can leave them in the oven as long as you choose, if you remember
to add water. Open the door and take a peak every hour or two. Do not touch the pot if there is still juice on top, and close the door as
quickly as you can. Serve in a pot, as the Pilgrims did. Fragrant and steaming, brown and mealy--and hot as hot can be. With them
your should have brown bread on Saturday night, with piccalilli on the side. And on Sunday morning, you should have
fish cakes and the beans warmed up with a chunk of salt pork, crusty on top and brown as old mahogany."
---New England Cookbook, Eleanor Early [Random House:New York] 1954 (p. 56-57)

Some notes on Michigan's culinary heritage
"The earliest Europeans in the Michigan area were French explorers, traders, and missionaries in the late 1600s and early 1700s...By 1859...
farm families were firmly established in Michigan's southern counties, where prairie grassland was plentiful for grazing dairy cows. Farmers grew
wheat and produced milk, butter, and cheese. They raised hogs for meat, since cows were too precious to be eaten. Most farmers also had chickens and geese
and they grew their own produce. Many nineteenth-century Michigan farmers hunted wild game, and their wives tended the family vegetable gardens...
Mining developed on the Upper Peninsula around 1850. The mine workers came mainly from Cornwall, Ireland, Canada, Finland, and eastern Europe. The
mining families from Cornwall brought their Cornish pasties with them. This meat-and-vegetable combination encased in a pastry could easily be reheated
in very cold weather on a "Cornish stove"--a shovel held over a candle down the mine. Many of the Cornish pasties gave the miners a complete lunch...In
1847 religious refugees from the Netherlands settled in Michigan in a town they named Holland...Long famous for their smoked and salted fish, roast goose,
and other fowl, the Dutch were delighted with the fish and game birds of their new homeland...The Czechs and Moravians were important elements in
Michigan's pioneer culture in the nineteenth century...Baked goods and pastries such as Vdolky, Kolache, Milosti, Baleshsky, and Strudel were served
for dessert...Battle Creek was settled by the Seventh Day Adventists...In 1867 Dr. Kellogg...introduced the idea of cold cereals for breakfast. In
order to promote better nutrition, Dr. Kellogg invented toasted cornflakes and many other grain and nut products."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 148-151)

What to make for class? We suggest German, Dutch Heritage, or Cornish culinary heritage. The cities of were settled by these immigrants. Sample Frankenmuth-style Bavarian recipes courtesy of
Zendher's.
If you prefer something from the colonial era, this book is perfect:
History from the Hearth: A Colonial Michilimackinac Cookbook, Sally Eustice. Seventh Day Adventist recipes from Ella Eaton Kellogg's
Science in the Kitchen, circa 1892.

5. Historic recipesFood on the Frontier:Minnesota Cooking from 1850 to 1900 with selected recipes/Marjorie
Kriedberg---your local public librarian will be happy to help you get a copy of this book.

Minnesota's ethnic food heritage
"The people of Minnesota are from a very diverse ethnic heritage--British, Germans, Scandinavians, Finns, Italians, Slavs, and more recently, refugees from
Southeast Asia. The Scots, Welsh, and Canadians were some of the earliest settlers of Minnesota, while the greatest number of British arrived in
1890 to work in the mines on the Vermillon and Mesabi Iron Ranges...The Germans are Minnesota's largest ethnic group, having immigrated to the area
from the 1830s to the present day. Nineteeth-century German immigrants found the land suitable for raising the type of food they enjoyed. Many of the early
German settlers baked rye bread every Saturday...The Scandinavian immigrant--Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Finnish--found Minnesota to be similar
to Scandinavia...Housewives were delighted with the new white flour that yielded cakes and bread much lighter than those of their native land. Meatballs
of beef and pork, American-style bacon, corn, and a strange fruit called watermelon became a part of the immigrants' diet. The Danish immigrants found many of their
traditional cooking ingredients in Minnesota. Their kitchen gardens had large patches of parsley, carrots, peas, and kale...The pioneer Swedes...depended
upon staples for their diet. Homemade soups, potatoes, fish, and various grains were the mainstay of their early cuisine...Minnesota posed a culinary challenge
for most Italians, since much of their native ingredients were not available and could not be grown in the short growing season. The early Italian
immigrants relied heavily on what they called peasant food--polenta, rice dishes such as risotto, and pasta...Southern Slavs, mostly Croatians,
Slovenians, and Serbs, settled in Minnesota between 1900 and 1920...Being accustomed to fresh fruit, they planted apple, cherry, apricot, and olive
trees. Because of the harsh climate, the apricots and olives did not survive. Slavic cooking is primarly based on soups, stews, and other
combination dishes...At the clsoe of the Vietnam War, some of the Hmong people of northern Laos...came to Minnesota...These people brought yeat another
dimension to the varied cuisines of Minnesota."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 157-8)

Early Mississippi foodways
"The first explorers of what is now northern Mississippi were French fur traders who set up trading posts in Indian villages. They learned to eat the same
food as the Indians, primarly a mush concocted from ground brier root, fish, and wild game. When the first permanent settlement was established...
around 1700, the settlers found they could obtain chickens from the Indians in addition to fish...The French brides who came to Biloxi, like those who
came to New Orleans, soon learned to use native ingredients in their cooking. Redfish, green peppers, and assorted wild herbs became the basis of their
fish stews. From the earliest days, Missisppi cooks usually had available the basic ingredients for a soup or a stew--carrots, celery, onions, okra, and a
sprig or two of parsley. Tomatoes were not included until well after the Revolutionary War...The cuisine of Mississppi varied with aspects of its
history. Although New Orleans remains the bastion of French-cooking influence in America, French influence was also dominant in the cuisine of the
plantation mansions along the Mississippi River. Rich sauces and spectacular desserts abounded on manor-house dinner tables.. Food was presented in great
splendor in ante-bellum Mississippi. The luxurous day began with hot, strong, black coffee...Food for the plantation workers was much simpler. Freshly
caught catfish...often constituted dinner. It was accompanied by turnip greens flavored with salt pork; corn bread; hot, spicy red beans; and rice.
Baked ribs and beans baked with bell peppers accompanied by corn bread was a typical winter meal. Chicken bread was a particular favorite among
plantation workers. It consists of a batter made with flour, cornmeal, shortening, salt, and milk, which was baked in a frying pan after the chicken
had finished frying...For many years the slaves ate corn pone (eggless corn bread which is fried or baked in small batches) and pot liquor, the juice that
remains after vegetables, particularly greens, are cooked."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 128-130)

"Missouri's earliest farmers were the people of the Hopwell culture...The Hopewells grew corn and beans and hunted small
animals...The Mississippi people knew how to farm well and grew large quantities of food. They were also hunters and traders.
Since they lived close to the Missippi River, fishing was an important activity...The Oneonta culture, from which the
Missouri tribe developed, produced excellent hunters of deer, elk, turkey, and bison, or buffalo. Fishing, gardening,
and gathering were essential to the tribe's existence...The woods contained berries, roots, and nuts. Acorns...are plentiful
in Missouri, and Native Americans used them in stews or ground them into meal. They age sunflower seeds, both raw and raosted, and
they learned to make oil from the seeds for cooking and for hair dressing. Cattails were a valuable food source because all parts
of the plant could be eaten...When the weather and the hunting were good, native Americans had plenty of food. But there
were times when food was scarce. To preserve meat for the winter months, Native Americans fried and smoked game over a wooden
frame set over a low fire. They made a food called pemmican, which was dried and pounded meat mixed with animal fat and crushed
berries. The pemmican prevented starvation during a long winter and provided vitamins and protein. It was also taken on long hunting
trips. Another kind of preserved meat was jerky, from the Spanish word charqui. During a hunt, some of the fresh-killed meat was
sliced thin, rubbed with salt, and rolled up in an animal skin to absorb the salt and release its juices. The meat was then dried
in the sun. Jerky was hard, chewy, and long lasting. The jerky found ins tores today originated with Native American hunters. Corn
and beans were also dried for the winter months. Succotash is a stew of corn and beans and sometimes fihs and game. The name succotash
is a variation of an Indian word. The ingredients of this stew varied from region to region, but all contained corn and
beans...Native Americans used Missouri's wild plants and berries not only for food but also for soaps, dyes, and medicines. They used elderberries
for tonics. They mashed the root of the curly dock plant to make a salve for sores and they mashed the leaves, mixed them with salt, and put
this "medicine" on their foreheads to treat headaches...The main crops for the Osage were corn, squash, and beans. Corn was eaten
boiled or roasted on the cob, or dried after cooking for storage. Parched corn, made from roasted mature grains, was like
popcorn that didn't pop. Hominy was made by removing the corn kernal and soaking it in lye made from wood ashes. It was then
boiled or dried. The women preservred squash and pumpkings by cutting the pulp into strips and hanging them on racks to dry...
Meat preparation was women's work. Although men were the hunters, the women cut, dried, and smoked meats."
---Food in Missouri: A Cultural Stew, Madeline Matson [University Of Missouri Press:Columbia MO] 1994 (p. 4-6)

Pioneer Missouri foodways
"Many of the early settlers of Missouri came in covered wagons from Kentucky, Virginia, and other regions of the Upper South...The women used their
Southern recipes to make buttermilk biscuits, fried chicken with cream gravy, cooked greens with bacon, and baked apple dumplings topped with cinnamon,
brown sugar, and thick cream. French traders and eventaully French families from Canada came down the Mississippi into Missouri. They, too, brought
their favorite recipes for thin French crepes and cookies of sweet and bitter almonds called croquignoles. The French women made a special soup of
dried peas, turnips, celery, and onions that was flavored with mint and thyme...German immigrants also settled in Missouri, bringing their food
traditions with them...raw potato pancakes, crispy fried in lard and cheesecakes...abounded in every German community...
Germans also brought the brewing industry to St. Louis. Angel food cake, named for its
fluffy whiteness and delicate texture, is said to have been "invented" in St. Louis...The Germans and Central Europeans brought their sausage-making
ability to the Midwest. One of their sausages, wienerwurst (aka hot dog or frankfurter), became the most American of all."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 182)
[NOTE: About Angel food cake.]

"Misssouri is the largest producer of black walnuts in the world. Nearly 50 percent of the world's black-walnut crop...is harvested
during October and November each year. There is also a sizeable crop of pecans and hickory nuts in Missouri. Famous for their
rich, tangy flavor...They are popular baking
ingredients and have a much stronger flavor than the milder English walnuts...Pecan trees grew wild in Missouri and were a source of
food for the Missouri Indians long before the white man came...Honey has been a part of Missouri history. Before Missouri
became a state, there was a battle, called the Honey War, to determine the territory's northern boundary. Missouri and Iowa
officials disagreed over the boundary for years. In 1839 when a Missouri man cut down three hollow trees containing bee
hives in the disputed area, Iowa tolerance reached its limit, and the Honey War began. Missouri won...Missouri...has become
famous for a product made from Missouri-grown wheat--Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix. Self-rising pancake flour...was created in
St. Joseph, Missouri. It was first packaged in 1889..."
---Taste of the States, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 182-183)

"Roast Ozark turkey should be included; also Old Boone Country ham. Fried chicken in Missouri is prepared by disjointing a 2 1/2 to 3-
pound bird. Each piece is coated with flour which has been seasoned with salt and pepper. The pieces are then fried slowly in a
small amount of lard (just enough to prevent sticking) for twenty to thirty minutes, until each piece is tender and a golden brown
color. During the cooking each piece is turned frequently. The pieces are removed from the heavy frying pan as they become done, and
when all are removed a milk gravy is made by using equal measure of flour and fat in which the chicken was fried and one cup of
milk for each two tablespoons of flour. The giblets may be cooked and diced and added to the gravy."

Early Montana foods
"Montana had been left to the Indians until gold and copper mining swept the Western frontier and the Rockies...In the
heyday of fur trading, Montana was inhabited by millions of buffalo...Hunters frequently killed buffalo for the fur and
left the meat...Milk cows were grought into Montana in 1833, and by the 1850s missionaries had brought a few beef cattle...
Sheep came into the Montana territory at about the same time as the railroads...In the early 1900s there was a shift in
Montana's agriculture from livestock to wheat farming. Wheat has now become the state's top agricultural crop...The various
ethnic groups who settled in Montana brought their native recipes with them. Many Russians became wheat farmers in Montana.
They retained their traditional foods, such as beet soup and a cheese tart called Vatroushki...For company there was a
pudding of Montana cherries, bread crumbs, and cinnamon or a pie called Smettanick, which had a filling of cherry jam,
almonds, and sour cream...The Croatians and Slavs settled Butte, Great Falls, and Anaconda...In the Scandinavian settlements
of Montana a special porridge with heavy cream was served at Christmas...The Irish celebrated Easter by preparing a dish
called Golden Bread, which consists of thick slices of homemade white bread dipped in egg and fried in butter...The Scots
enjoyed scones...Montana's cuisine is also based on ingredients indegenous to the state. White honey...is spread on
huckleberry bread...In the hunting season many dishes center around elk, moose, and deer."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 226-8)

Lewis & Clark traversed the If you want to
make something they would have eaten we recommend these books (all contain historic
information and modernized recipes):

"Popcorn balls.
Sometimes Mamma did not make taffy, but made popcorn balls. By shaking the container
of popped corn, the hard or unpopped grains would settle to the bottom. Then she
removed the popped corn to a 8 or 10 quart dish pan or mixing bowl. Six quarts of
popped corn will make 14 to 15 popcorn balls the size of an orange. Following is a recipe
for the popcorn syrup. Stir together 2 cups brown sugar, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and 1/2 cup
water. Bring to boil and cook until a hard ball is formed in cold water. Just before it
reaches the hard ball stage add 1 tablespoon of butter. Pour over the popcorn and mix
well with a big spoon. As soon as you are able to handle the corn without burning your
hands, start forming the balls. Press the corn lightly into balls, being careful not to crush
the corn. I think we relished these popcorn balls more, because Mamma usually made
them on a stormy day, when we couldn't go outdoors."
---Cookery of the Prairie Homesteader, Louise K. Nickey [Touchstone
Press:Beaverton OR] 1976 (p. 149)
[NOTE: you can use a modern recipe if you like. Ask yr parents for help...making
popcorn balls means hot stuff on the stove.]

If all you need are simple ( & delicious!) Montana recipes here are some good choices:
This modernized recipe is based on one found in Louise K. Nickey's Cookery of the
Prairie Homesteader.

"Buttermilk Biscuits (Montana:1909)
2 cups flour plus 1/4 cup to flour board
1/2 cup lard, plus a little to grease baking sheet
1 scant teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk.
Equipment: Pastry blender or large fork... wooden board, rolling pin, biscuit cutter or
large clean empty tunafish can with both ends removed, baking sheet.
1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or large fork (or your fingers) until the flour
mixture is in fine granules.
3. "Sprinkle buttermilk over the mixture." Mix to make a solid, soft dough. "If all the dry
ingredients do not work in, gradulaly add a little more buttermilk."
4. Flour the board and rolling pin.
5. Work dough "lightly into a ball with the tips of fingers and roll out to approximately
one-inch thick."
6. Lightly grease baking sheet (optional).
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
8. Cut biscuits with cutter or tuna tin, arrange on baking sheet.
9. Bake "15 or 20 minutes or until they are a deep golden brown."
"Serve hot biscuits with butter and/or jelly, honey, or chokecherry syrup." Leftover
biscuits were eaten split and filled with butter and sugar, or reheated in a paper sack in a
325-degree oven, or crumbled into hot stewed tomatoes."
Serves 4."
---The American History Cookbook, Mark H. Zanger [Greenwood Press:Westport
CT] 2004 (p. 269-70)

Early Nebraska foodways
"In 1804 the Lewis and Clark expedition inventoried the edible resources of Nebraska. The list included deer, "turkies,"
grouse, elk, geese, ducks, buffalo, catfish, and "other" fish. They also noted an abundance of wild grapes, three kinds
of plums, wild cherries, and gooseberries. Lewis...and Clark observed that the two most popular foods of the nomadic
Indian tribes of Nebraska were jerky (dried beef preserved with salt) and pemmican (finely pounded dried meat mixed
with fat). Like the native Indians, the early traders, trappers, explorers, and missionaries who traversed Nebraska
were able to live off the land. They carried only the basic food items, such as salt pork, sugar, flour, and coffee. Salt
pork, a staple food because it would keep indefinately, was soaked for a few hours to remove some of the excess salt
and then fried. The sugar was usually in laoves or coarsely crushed brown sugar, and the flour was unbleached. Coffee,
which was green, had to be roasted in a skillet over an open fire before it could be ground and brewed...From the time of
the establishment of the first settlements and farms in Nebraska, corn and cornmeal became the major item of the diet...
Even corncobs were used for fuel in cooking and hating...The coming of the railroads to Nebraska in the mid-1860s attracted
homesteaders by the tens of thousands. Most came from agricultural areas of the East, and a large portion emigrated from
Europe, especially German, Bohemia, the British Isles, and Scandinavia...Pioneer life on the plains was hard...Homemakers
brought their recipes and familiar methods of cooking with them, but the new circumstances on the frontier required them to make
many adjustments. Until a settler could plant a garden and acquire livestock, the family had to do without eggs, milk,
butter, or lard. Settlers improvised recipes for pancakes without eggs, biscuits without lard, and used water instead
of milk in baking. Salt-risen bread became popular with housewives who had no yeast. The term "salt-risen" refers to
the practice of keeping a bowl of starter nested overnight in a warm bed of salt, which retained a uniform heat. The
starter contained warm milk or water, four, cornmeal, sugar or molasses."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America,, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 184-5)

Eventually Nebraska became part of the great American farm belt, supplying urban areas and military
personnel with much needed wheat, beef, and other necessary commodities. If you go to this site and search the word food you will find dozens of
interesting pieces of information.

Native American foodways Foods of the Desert
Culture--State of Nevada. Lots of interesting information about Native American
cuisine in Nevada, includes a list of indigenious ingredients and simple recipes.
Excellent if you need to explain to your class the history behind the recipe.

Early European Nevada trekkers (1820s-1840s) dined on standard portable provisions
(coffee,
tea, flour, jerky/pemmican, dried fruits, dried beans/peas, sugar, brandy) supplemented
by local
items (animals, fruits & vegetables). Exact recipes depended upon traditional preference
(French,
English, Mexican/Spanish), economics (how much money the group had), and
season/weather.
According to the writings in many early Nevada explorer's journals, many places in this
state were
harsh and inhospitable. Many times there was nothing to eat.

Want to explore Nevada's culinary diversity? The Great Nevada
Cookbook,
compiled by the editors of Nevada Magazine, is and excellent source. This
booklet groups
representative historic recipes by ethnic/immigrant groups (Native American, Basque,
Greek, Mexican), historic period (miners, cowboys) and cooking style (Dutch oven). All
recipes are adapted for modern kitchens. Your librarian will be happy to help you find a
copy.

Early New Hampshire foodways
"The first colonists bulit homes, started fisheries, and traded the Indians for furs. These settlers had no agricultural
experience and found it hard to adapt to their new surroundings. Although familiar with saltwater fishing, they still
depended upon England for msot of their food supplies. Wild game and turkey were plentiful, but the early settlers did not
know how to catch them and ammunition was in short supply...Duyring the summer the settlers learned to gather wild black
currants, raspberries, and strawberries. Theys tarted importing seedlings and cutting of fruit trees from England, and soon
almost every farm...had an orchard. Vegetable gardens could not be relied upon as a steady supply of food, however, due to
the short growing season and sudden changes in the weather...In 1719 shiploads of Scotch-Irish families arrived and settled
near the Merrimack Valley in New Hampshire...These settlers bought potatoes with them...Within two decades potatoes became
an important crop in New England. The English, who also settled in New Hampshire, introduced another root vegetable, the
turnip, to New England...By 1840 more than half of the land in New Hampshire was farmed...In addition to the English
and Scotch-Irish, there was also a large influx of French-Canadian settlers in New Hampshire. They brought with them
recipes for roast pork, pea soup, pickled beets, and salmon pie made with mashed potatoes, onions, milk, and seasonings...
Apple butter has been made in New Hampshire since colonial times..."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 25-7)

The NH Dept. of Agriculture provides this summary of major food crops. Note: apples and milk are
referenced here, along with maple syrup.

"Just like the early American colonists, the honeybee came here from Europe,
and was
officially adopted as the state insect in 1974....With more than 1,400 miles of streams to
swim
through, the brook trout became the official state fish in 1992....First cultivated
in the
Garden
State in 1916, the blueberry is a delicious new addition to this list as the official
state fruit
as of January 12, 2004."

"From the very beginning of its industrial history to the present, the preparation of food and drink products has loomed large in the
New Jersey picture. For two whole centuries the flour mills occupied top place among all of the State's manufacturing specialties.
Then, as they gradually yielded to western competition, another phase of the flour picture, the baking of bread, gradually
expanded into a major industry. In spite of a similar trend to the West in the slaughtering and packing of meat, a lively business
in that was built up at Jersey City. The brewing of beer and ale maintained a steady growth from early days, and eventually
reached substantial proportions. With the development of canning, South Jersey went into that business on a substantial scale,
in vegetables and fruits, during the summer and autumn months. In spite of this long participation of New Jersey in the food and
drink industries of the Nation, the State achieved national first place in only one item. This was the manufacture of canned soups,
as we shall see. Whereas canned soup made the name "Campbell" famous all over the world, the old New Jersey flour industry was
pretty much an anonymous affair. It never became associated, as in some other states, with particular towns or special
establishments..."
---"Food and Drink Industries," Jennie Barnes Pope, A.M., The Story of New Jersey, William Starr Myers, editor [Lewis Historical Publishing Company:New York]Volume III, 1945 (p. 137)

John Taylor's biographers confirm his entry into the retail grocery business as a teenager. When he was 20 [1856], Taylor established a retail grocery store with his name
on it. This accounts for the product origination date often cited by the press. Mr. Taylor quickly expanded his retail market into a wholesale concern. Pork products proliferated in
the greater Philadelphia region (think scrapple!). While it is quite likely Mr. Taylor sold pork products with his name on them from this date forwards, biographers
confirm he did not enter the slaughtering business until the 1870s. The Taylor Provisions Company (manufacturers of Taylor Ham and Pork Roll) was established in
1907. The business flourished, but did not expand beyond the local markets of New Jersey and the Greater Philadelphia area. We find no print evidence supporting
modern claims this Taylor's Pork Roll was a family recipe handed down from Colonial times.

The oldest print reference we find for this item dates to 1908:
"LOOK OUT For Imitators SEE SEE That You Get the Genuine TAYLOR Pork Roll ABSOLUTELY Clean Government Inspected NAME ON EVERY
BAG."
---display ad (no reference to price or manufacturer), Trenton Evening Times, January 25, 1908 (p. 2) [NOTE: this ad no doubt caught attention; it ran down the
entire middle column of the page.]

How much did it cost?
"Taylor Pork Roll, 10 1/2 c[ents] lb. By the bag."
---Trenton Evening Times, April 2, 1908 (p. 6)

Taylor pork roll legend & lore
"It's as Jersey as sitting on the stoop or grabbing a late bite at the diner. It s meat that goes with eggs, but it isn't ham or bacon or even sausage. In fact, if you ask
anyone outside of the state what it is, they ve probably never heard of it. But call it by name around these parts, and you almost can smell it sizzling. Pork roll.
Uncover the canvas wrapping, slice it thin, make three small cuts at the edges so it doesn't curl up and grill away. Mmm mm. Nothing tastes or smells quite like it,
even though many of us may not exactly know what the heck it really is. Pork roll commonly is known as Taylor ham whether Taylor Provisions in Trenton makes it
or not it's just one of those Jersey things. In fact, it's so Jersey, you can't buy it anyplace else in the country or in the world, except in the tri-state area."
---"Pork Roll: A Jersey Kind of Thing," Brooke Tarabour, Star Ledger [Newark NJ], May 2, 2001 (p. 67)

"Taylor Pork Roll, which originated in Trenton, was invented by John Taylor in 1856. A sign describes pork roll as 'select, strictly fresh pork tenderly cured without
the aid of brine or pickle, delicately aged and slowly smoked with hickory.' Taylor Pork roll stands used to be plentiful on the Jersey Shore, in the first half of the
century, they existed in Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Cape May, Ocean City and Wildwood..."
---"Jersey Shore Beach Food: Just a Summer Love?" New York Times, August 11, 1993 (p. C3)

"Wow! Did we ever found out about pork roll sandwiches in New Jersey...Good news for desperate Jerseyites...The proper name is Taylor's Pork Roll..The
sandwiches can be constructed with toasted hamburger buns. The meat is sliced thin--better three thin than one fat--and broiled, fried, or --best--grilled over
charcoal. There was an early-pre-Revolution John Taylor, who may or may not have made the first ham--it was originally Taylor's Ham--but it was first 'ground
and bagged' for the market by a John Taylor in 1856. It was, I am told, the only thing for Sunday breakfast along with two poached eggs for 'anyone who
amounted to anything' in Trenton."
---"All's Fare," Lois Dwan, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1981 (p. I9)

"The pork roll dates back to Colonial days, the recipe handed down within the Taylor family. It is fresh pork, chopped then sugar cured and not available in
Arizona..."
---"Pork Roll Dates Back to Colonial Times," Arizona Republic, May 28, 1969 (p. 64)

Official state foods
New York State has several "official" state
foods. These are voted on/approved by the state's lawmakers in Albany.

State fruit: apple
State beverage: milk
State muffin: apple muffin (no recipe included in the law)
---No "official" recipe in state law books; this one provided by
the New York Apple Association
State fish: speckled trout
State shell: bay scallops
State tree: sugar maple

New York also has several popular foods associated with the state. Some of the
most famous national favorites and regional treasures are:

Native American influence
The Dutch learned how to cook some Indian dishes and fit them into their daily fare. For lovers of
porridge it was not hard to get used to sappaen, a cornmeal mush; and the pumpkin easily fitted into a common Dutch meal as pumpkin
pancakes..."---Sensible Cook (p. 27)

18th century meals & mealtimes
"In 1749, eighty-five years after the English took over the Dutch colony, [Peter Kalm] describes the descendants of the Dutch
settlers in Albany as follows: 'Their food and its preparation is very different from that of the English. Their breakfast is tea,
commonly without milk. About thirty or forty years ago, tea was unknown to them, and they breakfasted either upon bread and butter,
or bread an milk. They never put sugar into the cup, but take a bit of it into their mouths while they drink. Along with the tea they
eat bread and butter, with slices of dried beef. The host himself generally says grace out loud. Coffee is not usual there. They
breakfast generally around seven. Their dinner is buttermilk and bread, to which they add sugar on special occasions, when it is a
delicious dish for them, or fresh milk and bread, with boiled or roasted meat. They sometimes make use of buttermilk instead of fresh
milk, in which to boil a thin kind of porridge that tastes very sour but not disagreeable in hot weather. With each dinner they have
a large salad, prepared with an abundance of vinegar, and very little or no oil...Their supper consists generally of bread and butter, and milk with small
pieces of bread in it. The butter is very salt. Sometimes too they have chocolate. They occasionally eat cheese at breakfast and at
dinner; it is not in slices, but scraped or rasped, so as to resemble coarse flour, which they pretend [claim] adds to the good
taste of the cheese. They commonly drink very weak beer, or pure water."---ibid (p. 27-28)

"In contrast to the frugal daily fare were veritable feasts for the holidays, special occasions, or guests:...'Tea here was a perfect
regale; accompanied by various sorts of cakes...cold pastry, and great quantities of sweetmeats and preserved fruits of various
kinds, and plates of hickory and other nuts ready cracked. In all manner of confectionery and pastry these people excelled; and
having fruit in great abundance, which costs them nothing, and getting sugar home at an easy rate...the quantity of these articles
used in families, otherwise plain and frugal, was astonishing.'"---ibid (p. 28)

"In their new colony, the settlers continued to prepare familiar foods...As diaries and inventories note, the settlers themselves
brought the implements used for cooking these familiar foods, duplicating life in the Netherlands as best as they could. Cookbooks
of their descendants show that they continued their own foodways but also incorporated native foods into their daily diet, albeit in ways
that were familiar to them. For instance, they made pumpkin cornmeal pancakes, pumpkin sweetmeat, or added cranberries instead of the
usual raisins and apples to their favorite olie-coecken. Lovers of porridge found it easy to get used to sapaen (Indian cornmeal
mush), but they added milk to it...Cookies, pancakes, waffles, wafers, oli-koecken, pretzels, and coleslaw are some of the dishes that were
brought to America by the Dutch colonists."---Matters (p. 23-24)

Sweet Moravian traditions
"Nazareth's Whitefield House will see its 265th Christmas this year. While the once
home and school for Moravian settlers is now a museum telling the region's history; it's
not hard to imagine the gracious stone building once filled with the celebration and
sweet smells of traditional Moravian holiday recipes. As Susan Dreydoppel shares the
history of some of the uniquely famous baked goods still enjoyed by Moravians and
non-Moravians alike, she gently places samples of the treats on an appropriately
holiday-themed plate and the irresistible fragrance of cinnamon and ginger again fills
the 1740s Whitefield House. Dreydoppel, a Moravian minister and an area bakery share
the reasons Moravian baking traditions have become such a cherished part of the
holidays in our area.
"Our traditions stem from German baking traditions we brought here with us," explains
the Rev. Christine Johnson, co-pastor at East Hills Moravian Church in Bethlehem.
Dreydoppel, executive director of the Moravian Historical Society, and a Moravian,
continues to make the recipes passed down to her by her Bethlehem grandmother.
Dreydoppel prefers to bake traditional cookie recipes: scotch cakes (a rich, buttery
shortbread with icing), chocolate drops and spice cookies. She says her research into
ethnic Christmas customs found that in some cultures -- including the Swedish, German
and Pennsylvania Dutch-- cookies are an important part of the holidays.
"In the German culture they used to do cookies and place them on the Christmas tree.
The dark dough, spice dough, was for animal shapes; the white dough, for geometric
shapes," she says. One way baking is tied to Moravian religious traditions is the
lovefeast, Johnson says. Most area churches, including East Hills Moravian, celebrate a
lovefeast on Christmas Eve. "Lovefeast is a very simple meal shared during a worship
service and helps us remember we are family," the pastor says. The lovefeast is based in
early Christianity when the faithful didn't have churches and met in homes. "What do
you do in your home? Share food together," she says. Later in history the lovefeast
premise became part of German tradition, too. "People were wanting to linger after
worship services where they were connected to God. They'd call out for leftovers and
Germans had a lot of sugary cake and sweet buns in their homes," Johnson says.
The well-known Moravian sugar cake is a simple cake topped with butter, brown sugar
and cinnamon. "Sugar cake is something people assume has been this Moravian
delicacy for centuries. However, there is no hard-and-fast history for sugar cake and
other classic Moravian recipes," Dreydoppel says. The first written recipe for the cake
can be traced back to the Moravian Magazine published in Bethlehem, in 1863. "My
guess is if they were publishing something in this magazine, it wasn't popular before
that," she says. Talk of sugar cake in her family goes back to a story she heard her
grandfather tell of his mother sending butter and brown sugar to Bethlehem's Central
Moravian Church to make the cakes. "It's a yeast dough. People don't take time to make
things with yeast (anymore)," Dreydoppel says. But there have been recipes adapted to
make the cake with quick yeast and breadmakers. "Purists would say that's a travesty,"
she adds lightheartedly. Plus, "There is no small recipe for sugar cake. You're going to
get a lot -- enough to feed a family or congregation." "I've made sugar cake. It's hard,"
Johnson says with a laugh. Her congregation also includes many young professionals
and busy families who also don't have time to bake the traditional items. So, who makes
the sugar cake for East Hills holiday lovefeast?
Schubert's Bakery in Nazareth.
The bakery, in its 35th year on North Broad Street, serves up the sweet tradition for
many local churches, Moravian and non-Moravian. Before then, the business, owned by
Ernie Schubert, was on South Main Street in Phillipsburg. Store manager Barbara
Willett of Easton says the dough for the store's famed sugar cake is made and patted by
hand. Schubert's offers sugar cake year-round and, at the holidays, also makes the
traditional Moravian lovefeast bun a large bun topped with butter and sugar, she says.
Whether store-bought or homemade, Moravian treats just seem to make the holidays a
little sweeter.
Want to get baking?
Bear with this non-traditional recipe style, which appeared in The Moravian magazine
more than a century ago:

1863 Moravian Sugar Cake
To gratify one of our lady subscribers, and in compliance with other repeated
solicitations, we furnish herewith a recipe for making the genuine home-made sugar
cake which we have taken down from the lips of several experienced housekeepers.
Recipe -- of well-risen wheaten bread dough, take about two pounds. Work into it a
teacup full of brown sugar, quarter pound of butter and a beaten egg. Knead well and
put into a square pan dredged with flour. Cover it and set it near the fire for half an hour
to rise. When risen, wash with melted butter; make holes in the dough to half its depth,
two inches apart, fill them with brown sugar and a little butter. Then spread ground
cinnamon and a thick layer of brown sugar over the whole surface. Sprinkle with a little
essence of lemon. Put into the oven and bake it fifteen minutes.
Susan Dreydoppel offers this recipe which translates more easily to modern
cooking methods:

Moravian Sugar Cake
2 pints potato water or milk
1 or 2 packages dry yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup very warm water
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
4 teaspoons salt
1 cup shortening
8 to 10 cups flour (more if needed)
Topping:
Melted butter
Brown sugar
Cinnamon (the more the better)
Heat potato water or milk to lukewarm, or scald and then cool milk. In large
mixing bowl, combine liquid, yeast (use 2 packages if you want faster rising, 1 for
slower), sugar, salt, eggs, some flour, shortening, rest of flour.
Work with hand until dough blisters (dough will be very soft and sticky, so leave it in
the bowl and just squeeze for about 10 minutes). Let rise about one hour in a warm
place. Punch down. May be put in pans now, or let rise a second time (about 45 minutes
to an hour).
Spread in well-greased pans, spreading as thin as possible (it won't go smoothly to
edges, but after it's risen a bit, it will spread out a little more). Let rise 30 to 45 minutes.
Punch holes with finger. Spoon melted butter over. Cover with soft brown sugar,
sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until top is golden
brown.
Note: The full recipe will make a lot of sugar cake, probably two cookie sheets full plus
a 9- by-13 inch pan. I usually only make half the recipe, using 1 full package yeast. This
makes 1 cookie sheet plus two, small, 8- by-8 inch pans.
If you really want to keep it simple, and have a bread machine, try this version
courtesy Ann Weisel, Moravian Historical Society administrative assistant...

The foodways specialists at Old Salem add these notes, citing earlier print evidence of
local Sugar Cakes:
"In the morning as we came from bed, we found our lb. of cakes laying on the
table with a slate pencil from Sr. Langgaar by each, and some apples.. After
being washed & combed we went to breakfast where we found sugar cake &
coffee. The first meeting was German preaching afterwards English in both of
which was beautiful music. At 10 o'clock, in the afternoon we had our
meeting, which was kneeling, kept by Mr. Huebner. In the evening, we spoke
our dialogue for our beloved Mr. Frues. After meeting we had the pleasure to
go & see the Illuminate of the brethren's house, which was delightful." -
Friday, Dec. 25, 1789; A JOURNAL kept at BETHLEHEM BOARDING SCHOOL begun in
December, 1789 by MARIA ROSINA UNGER; This transcription is from the
holdings of the Bethlehem Area Public Library. The original can be found in
the collection of the Moravian Museum of the Historic Bethlehem Partnership.

"The choir of the unmarried Brothers also joined in the same celebration.
For Breakfast there was sugar cake." - May 4 1815, Peter Wolle Diaries,On
File in Old Salem Library, Winston-Salem, NC

In Eliza Leslie's cookbook, Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches
by Miss Leslie, the 1837, 1840 and 1847 edition there is the following
recipe:

Moravian Sugar Cake
Cut a quarter of a pound of butter into a pint of rich milk, and warm it
till the butter becomes soft; then stir it about in the milk so as to mix
them well. Sift three quarters of a pound of flour (or a pint and a half)
into a deep pan, and making a ole in the middle of it, stir in a large
table-spoonful of the best brewer's yeast in which a salt-spoonful of salt
has been dissolved; and then thin it with the milk and butter. Cover it,
and set it near the fire to rise. If the yeast is sufficiently strong, it
will most probably be in two hours. When it is quite light, mix with the
dough a well-beaten egg and three quarters of a pound more of sifted flour;
adding a tea-spoonful of oil of cinnamon, and stirring it very hard. Butter
a deep square baking pan, and put the mixture into it. Set it to rise
again, as before. Mix together five ounces or a large coffee-cup of fine
brown sugar; two ounces of butter; and two table-spoonfuls of powdered
cinnamon. When the dough is thoroughly light, make deep incisions all over
it, at equal distances, and fill them with the mixture of butter, sugar and
cinnamon; pressing it hard down into the bottom of the holes, and closing
the dough a little at the top to prevent the seasoning from running out..
Strew some sugar over the top of the cake; set it immediately into the oven,
and bake it from twenty minutes to half an hour, or more, in a brisk oven in
proportion to its thickness. When cool, cut it into squares. This is a
very good plain cake; but do not attempt it unless you have excellent yeast."

Many northern Europeans settled in North Dakota. They introduced the dishes of their
homelands, which are still enjoyed today. North
Dakota/German recipes & cookbooks. The Scandinavians also settled in North Dakota. Every year the Norsk
Hostfest is a popular destination for
family fun & food.

What did Nebraska pioneers eat?
"The buffalo herds of the plains played a key role in the frontier life and food supply of early North Dakota. Both the Indians and the settlers were
dependent on these animals...The Indians of the northern Great Plains obtained such necessities as food, clothing, shelter, and fuel from the buffalo.
As a food source the buttalo provided fresh meat, tallow, bone marrow, pemmican, and dried or jerked meat. The Indians considered tongues, dried
and smoked as a delicacy...North Dakota has has an agricultural economy since the time the territory became a state. It is probably the most rural state in
the country, with about 90 percent of the land in farms. The cultivation of spring and durum wheat and barley, along with the raising of cattle and hogs
and dairy operations, constitutes the state's agriculture...The pioneers who came to Dakota in wagons brought potatoes, squash, rice, preserves, pickles,
and eggs. The fragile items such as eggs were packed in cornmeal for the rough journey. However, the supply of both eggs and cornmeal was usually
exhausted at journey's end. In 1812 a small group of Scottish Highlanders established a settlement in the Red River Valley and ignored the eating habits
of the area, which were primarily based on the food of the Indians. The Highlanders had brought with them salt pork and beef from England, as well as
oatmeal for porridge, salt fish, and shortbread...The largest group of Icelandic settlements in this country is in North Dakota. Skyr, a version of
yogurt, was made by many of the Icelandic housewives and was served with blueberries...The Norwegians still bake many of their native cookies and
pastries."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 188-191)

Official state foods & popular commodities
The official state beverage of Ohio (adopted by law) is tomato juice. Paragon tomatoes
were "invented" in Reynoldsburg. If you
need more details about tomatoes in Ohio & authentic Ohio tomato recipes? Ask your librarian to help
you find a copy of Livingston and the Tomato, A.W. Livingston (inventor of the Paragon). This
book has recently been reissued by Ohio State University Press with a forward by culinary historian
Andrew F. Smith. The only other edible state symbol is the white tailed deer. Ohio's lush valleys grow several fruits and vegetables.

Looking for historic recipes?
Here is a cookbook
published by the Ladies' Aid Society of the First Presbyterian Church, Marion, Ohio [1894].
Need more historic recipes? We have a copy of The Presbyterian Cook Book, Compiled by the
Ladies of the First Presbyterian Church, Dayton Ohio c. 1911. We can send selected recipes if you wish.
Mark Zanger's The American History Cookbook lists several recipes culled from historic
cookbooks published in Ohio. Among these are: Apple brown betty, Boy's coffee, Coconut
Macaroons, Delightful cakes, Hayes cake, Sheridan cake, Wheat bread with Potato Yeast, and
Kumbish. If you would like to see these recipes, ask your librarian to help you find a copy. Hilde
Gabriel Lee's Taste of the States offers Upside-Down Apple Tart (p. 160) and Chicken &
Chestnuts (p. 162). Mary Anna Du Sablon's Cincinnati Recipe Treasury is perfect for examining ethnic (German, Greek)
culinary contributions. Recipes included.

The candy
"Buckeye. A peanut-buttter-and-chocolate candy made in little balls resembling buckeye nuts.
The term is dated in print by the Dictionary of American Regional English to 1970, which
describes it as "Cheap candy that used to be sold years ago." But according to Marcia Adams
in Heartland (1991), "If Ohio were to declare a state candy, this recipe would be it...Some
cooks like to leave a bit of peanut butter ball exposed when dipping in the chocolate so it
more closely resembles a real buckeye."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 45)

The Buckeye Cookery Book [1877] offers this
recipe for Buckeye Candy, which does not include peanut butter. Chocolate
was sometimes an ingredient, but not employed as coating.

The Presbyterian Cook Book [Dayton Ohio:1873-1911] does not reference any sort of Buckeye-type candy. This confirms the possibility Buckeye candy might be a more recent
creation. Peanut butter, at any rate, was not a popular candy ingredient until the early 20th
century. Prior to this it was considered a health food. Not likely to be dipped in chocolate.

An examination of old candy recipes confirms chocolate covered peanut confections (generally combining peanut butter and fondant)
were known in the early 20th century. Andrew F. Smith includes this historic recipe in his book Peanuts: The Illustrious History
of the Goober Pea (p. 155): "Peanut Bon-Bons. Take one part peanut butter and one part fondant, blend them thoroughly, press out
and cut into squares, allow to harden, and then coat with dipping cream. The dipping cream my be colored a little with caramel.
Source: Sherwood Snyder, The Art of Candy Making Fully Explained (Dayton, Ohio: Health Publishing Co., 1915), 30." Alice Bradley's
Candy Cook Book (c. 1929) offers this: "Chocolate Peanut Butter Creams. 1/2 cup fondant, 3 tablespoons peanut butter, 1/2 teaspoon
vanilla, Few grains salt, Coating chocolate. Mix fondant, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla with a spatula on marble slab or plate
until thoroughly blended. Shape in small balls, and dip in melted coating chocolate." (p. 46. Fondant is basically powdered sugar,
corn syrup and water.

More "finger food" suggestions from the Ohio State Library:

The Ohio Amish & Swiss are famous for their cheeses, which make ideal finger food.

Ohio has multiple strawberry festivals and the Circleville Pumpkin Festival is well-known around the state.

Ohio jams, jellies, honey, or fruit butters on crackers are another idea.

Need to make something for class?
If you need to prepare something easy for class...fresh strawberries or watermelon (parts of the official state meal) are your easiest options. Cornbread and/or baking soda
biscuits are likewise doable. Pecan Pie is tasty, but very rich and takes time. Maybe not
the best choice for kids. Oklahoma cooks offers ethnic recipes.
Wheat recipes.

"Chicken and corn pudding
6 ears green corn
1 broiling chicken
1 onion
1 sprig parsley
1/2 cup melted butter
salt and pepper
3 eggs
Clean, wash, and cut up a young chicken as for frying. Let it simmer until tender with
just enough water to cover, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cut the grains from the raw
roasting-ears, beginning with a thin outer slice. Add to the corn, the melted butter, well-beaten eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and entough of the broth in which the chicken has been
cooking to make a batter. Pour into a buttered baking-dish; place the pieces of chicken
in the middle, and bake until brown on top and the pudding is firm throughout."
---(p. 167-8)

"The Oklahoma house of representatives, which meets at Guthrie, will continue to eat popcorn, this, too, despite the heroic efforts
recently made by Representative T. F. Vandeventer of Bartlesville, former speaker of the Arkansas house and the man who gave
Jeff Davis the closest race he ever had for the Democratic nomination for governor. 'This contiunal eating of popcorn and the
practice of the members in exploding the empty bags during speechmaking detract from the dignity of the house and should be
stopped,' he asserted. Speaker Murray was Vandeventer's principal opponent. 'If that be so,' yelled Harvey Utterback, Republican,
of Kingfisher, 'then the practice of eating it should be discontinued at once!'...Vandeventer demanded a roll call, but
a rising vote was taken instead, and popcorn was kept on the house bill of fare by a vote of 46 to 29. Members of both houses
of the legislature eat popcorn all the time during sessions. Even the press tables are covered with it at times, and all the
legislative clerks eat abundantly of it. It is figured by local popcorn venders that it takes from a half bushel to three pecks of
corn on the ear daily to supply the legislature's demands for the popped product."
---"Popcorn Legislators' Diet," Daily Record, [Morris County, NJ newspaper] August 27,1908 (p. 6)

A few notes on Oregon's fruit & nut heritage
"Agriculture...Two young Iowans, Henderson Luelling and William Meek, can be
considered the "Johnny Appleseeds" of the Pacific Northwest. Both Meek and Luelling
came to Oregon with nursery stock in soil-filled boxes in their wagons...Transporting
plants was not an easy task, since they had to be watered frequently. The two men
settled In the Willamatte Valley, teaming up to form partnership and start a nursery.
Their trees were forerunners of today's Rogue River pears, Willamette Valley plums
and prunes, Hood River apples, and Dalles cherries. In those early days fruit was so
scarce that settlers came from all over the region to see the first apple trees...The coming
of the railroads made it possible to transport Oregon fruit to eastern markets...Bartlett
pears, which are hardy and keep well, became Oregon's major crop...Ninety-eight
percent fo the hazelnuts used in this country are grown in Oregon. The first hazelnut
trees were planted in 1858 in Schottsburg, Oregon, by David Gernot, a Frenchman."
---"Oregon," Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee
[Howell Press:Charlotte VA] 1992 (p. 242-3)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask
your librarian to help you obtain a copy.]

"Pennsylvania developed many culinary specialties, one of the earliest being peach pies and tarts baked by the first Quaker housewives in Philadelphia.
Apparently the peach trees left by the Spanish in Florida in the 1500s had been carried north by the Indians, as the Quakers found peach trees in
Pennsylvania when they arrived. Soups and stews provided hearty meals for the early colonists. One of the most famous was Philadelphia Snapper Soup,
made from the snapping turtle found in the Delaware River...Philadelphia consideres itself the birthplace of ice cream in the United States...Sticky
buns are another Philadelphia specialty. They were probably descendants of German Schnecken, which are similar to cinnamon rolls. The recipe for
Schnecken ("snails") was brought by the Germans who settled Germantown...in the early 1680s...Scrapple can be traced to German immigrants...
Pennsylvania Dutch cooking was remained almost unaltered for 200 years."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 60-1)

Pennsylvania famous for many different foods. Although these are not official "state
foods," they represent the history and people living in the state. If you need to make a
food for your state report all you have to do is select a place and period. Some popular
examples here:

Recommended cookbooks with modernized recipes(your local public librarian will help you get these)
Foods from the Founding Fathers/Burke
Philadelphia's City Tavern was a favorite place for eating & drinking. Modernized menus are inspired by colonial era traditions. While this food is more upscale/
gourmet (& expensive) than your project requires, it may be useful for additional ideas & table settings. City Tavern's chef Walter
Staib has published cookbooks. Your local public librarian can help you get them.

"From her plantation or in her Charleston home, Harriott would not have lacked for good food and drinks. At Hampton she had gardens, poultry, and livestock
together with game and seafood from nearby fields and rivers. In Charleston there were certainly a kitchen garden, a poultry yard, very likely a cow or two, the
daily market, and a wealth of imported delicacies from the West Indies and Europe...Milk and cheese were generally lacking except to the well-to-do. The pork
and barnyard fowls, fed on corn and rice, were rated good, but the beef, veal and mutton were but 'middling' or inferior because...the cattle and sheep were not
fattened but rather slaughtered direct from the thin pastures. From nearby fields and waters.,...there was a plentiful supply of venison, wild turkeys, geese, ducks,
and other wild fowl. Terrapin were found in all ponds, and at times ships arrived from the West Indies with huge sea turtles. Fish were often scarce and expensive,
but oysters, crabs, and shrimp could be bought cheaply. Vegetables were available and were preserved for winter months. Travelers noticed that the 'long' (sweet)
potatoes were a great favorite and there were also white potatoes, pumpkins, various peas and beans, squashes, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, carrots, and
parsnips among other vegetables. Rice was the colony's great staple and it was served with meats and shellfish and used to make breads, biscuits, flour, puddings,
and cakes...Corn served all classes to make Journey cakes and the great and small hominy. Wheat was grown by some of the Germans in the interior, but better
grades were imported from Pennsylvania and New York. Lowcountry dwellers grew and enjoyed a profusion of fruits: oranges, peaches, citrons, pomegranates,
lemons, pears, apples, figs, melons, nectarines, and apricots, as well as a variety of berries...Wealthy planters and merchants were not limited to locally produced
foods. From northern colonies came apples, white potatoes, and wheat...as well as butter, cheeses, cabbages, onions, and corned beef. The West Indies, the
Spanish and Portuguese islands, and Europe sent cheeses, salad oils, almonds, chocolate, olives, pimentos, raisins, sugar, limes, lemons, currants, spices,
anchovies and salt. Boats arrived in Charles Town frequently from the West Indies with many kinds of tropical fruits.As for beverages, only the slaves, the poorest
whites, and hard-pressed frontiersmen drank water. The average South Carolinian more likely drank a mixture of rum and water, spruce beer, or cider, and in the
frontier areas peach brandy and...whiskey..."
---A Colonial Plantation Cookbook: The Receipt Book of Harriott Pinckney Horry 1770, edited with an Introduction by Richard J. Hooker [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 14-17)

Low Country
South Carolina's low country cuisine is a creole mix of English, French, Caribbean and
West African flavors. The Gullah/Geechee people were of West African descent. There
does not seem to be much information about Geechee foodways on the Internet. But!
According to the Library of Congress (http://catalog.loc.gov) there are two books on the
topic:

Upcountry cuisine
Popular traditional examples are Pine Bark Stew & Carolina Muddle. What are these dishes?
"Pine-bark stew. A fish stew. [1872 Atlantic Mth. 29, 748. In these packages were strips of white
pine bark, which in its dried state gives out the flavor of nutmegs--slightly bitter and fragrant.]
1940. Brown Amer. Cooks 49 SC, From Up Country comes the famous Pine Bark Stew that
has as many variations as has the Brunswick Stew and the Kentucky Burgoo. 1941 Writers'
Program Guide SC 369 neSC, Bream and mollies are made into 'pine bark stew,' and tall tales
recounted around the bonfire. 1951 Brown Southern Cook Book 159, Pine Bark Stew, a fish
stew with a dark brown color and pungent flavor, is a South Carolina Pee Dee River dish...Some
sources state that the stew derives its name from the chocolate-like color similar to pine bark;
others, from the pine park used to kindle the open fire over which the stew is cooked. From The
Pee Dee Pepper Pot, Darlington, South Carolina, is a third explanation, "Since seasonings were
unobtainable during the Revolutionary War Days, the tender small roots of the Pine Tree...were
used for flavoring (the stew). With homemade ketchup as a base, the only other seasoning was
red pepper."
---Dictionary of American Regional English, Joan Houston Hall chief editor, Volume IV P-Sk
[Belknap Press:Cambridge MA] 2002 (p. 160)

"Carolina Muddle
"WHAT? Carolina bouillabaisse. A thick, satisfying fish stew, Carolina muddle can be
found in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, particularly on the Outer Banks. "Muddle
is the traditional feast of the region," Bill Neal wrote in Bill Neal's Southern Cooking.
"The simple vegetables potatoes, onions, tomatoes in perfect proportion with the
freshest fish achieve the satisfaction sought in all good peasant cooking." The soup also
contains bacon, tomatoes, and eggs, which poach on the surface of the simmering
liquid; the name "muddle" refers to the fact that many ingredients are jumbled together.
Cook a muddle in an iron pot over a pine-bark fire and what have you got? Pine bark
stew, of course."
--- Source. [NOTE: page does not connect 11 April 2009]

"Baker's Icing
Add 3 tablespoons of cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to a cup of powdered sugar. Beat
until well blended, and spread while the cake is still hot. Instead of cream, orange juice
may be used."
---ibid (p. 406-7)

"Murray County Corn-Meal Dodgers for Pot Licker
1/2 pt. White corn meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
large tablespoon melted lard
cold water
Mix the meal and salt and add melted lard and enough cold water to form with the hand
into small cakes about the size of a biscuit. Drop into the boiling pot licker, on the top
of the greens, and cook for twenty minutes with cover on the pot. Serve around the
greens. In middle Tenneessee these corn dodgers, or dumplings, are called
poorsouls."
---ibid (p. 236)

You can locate state-specific cookbooks with the Library of Congress catalog. Subject search: cookery, tennessee
...your local public librarian can help you obtain these books.

Looking for something unusual? Ramps!
"Ramps: ("Tennessee Truffles")...Ramps reign royally in Cosby, Tennessee, every
April. The Cook County community, nested, in the shadow of the Great Smoky
Mountains, goes wild over the odoriferous mountain leek, stagin a Ramp Festival...But
Cosby isn't alone. Ramps are celebrated across the lofty, fertile, and shady coves in
Southern Appalachia...The Appalachian "ramp country" ranges from West Virginia to
north Georgia. Wild ramps, a member of the lily family, and called "Tennessee
Truffles" by some, flourish in buckeye flats...old-time mountain people love the wild
leek. Take Gary Davis, a retired conservation ranger from Fannin County, Georgia. "If I
don't get some ramps to eat in the spring, I may not make it to the fall. It slicks you off
[as a tonic], makes you feel good and do good all summer..."
---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of
Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville
TN] 1998 (p. 273-4)

What did texan settlers eat in the 1820s to 1900s?
The answer to this question depends upon the ethnic heritage of the settler and how
much money he had. Sending you food notes on selected ethnic groups connected with
Texas:TexMexGerman settlers
Chicken fried steak
Czech settlers & Kolache

French settlers
Much is written about the influence of Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and German
influences on the culture and cuisine of Texas. One has to do more sleuthing to uncover
evidence of French settlement and influence.
Certainly, French immigrants transported their culinary heritage wherever they went. Like all
immigrant cultures, they adapted their recipes (by necessity) to include/accomodate local
ingredients and cooking facilities. They also most likely sampled/ate local fare. In places of large
French settlement (New Orleans, Detroit, Montreal) culinary influence is quite evident and well
documented. In places where small pockets of French settled (Dallas, lower Rio Grande,
headwaters of the Medina & Frio rivers), the culinary influence is less pronounced. Even in
settlements that were completely French (La Reunion 1858) the food was most likely French
with a Texas twist. La Renunion did not flourish. According to a survey of food history books,
neither did French cuisine.
The French restaurants you find in Texas today are are not products of the state's gastronomic
connection to the "mother country." They are, as in most places, products of classically-trained
chefs catering to consumers who are partial to this cuisine.

La Reunion/Dallas 1 & 2. Recommended reading:
The French in Texas, Francois Lagarde (ask your librarian to help you find this book).

Modernized recipes
If you need to make something for class? This book is perfect:
The Essenial Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret
Combinations, Julie Badger Jensen
...your local public librarian will be happy to help you obtain a copy.

"Mormon Scones,"
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), Nancy Hobbs, June 9, 1999, Pg. B1
"Outsiders may scoff, but Utah's deep-fried version is a hit with the folks at home
Regular diners at Johanna's Kitchen in Sandy, or Sill's Cafe in Layton, know what to expect when they
order a scone: a hot, deep-fried disc of bread the size of the plate or bigger, with a huge scoop of honey
butter slowly melting and pooling on top.
Just the way folks like it, says Stan Stevens, general manager at Johanna's, where scones sell by the
"thousands" -- more than 1,500 orders weekly, with two to an order.
But to people outside the Beehive State, these scones are an aberration. In Utah, scones originating in the
British Isles -- those bumpy-looking biscuit-type things sold in European-style bakeries, coffee shops and
upscale mountain resorts -- are the oddity.
Native Utahns are the ones at those spots who say, "You call those scones?"
Letty Flatt, pastry chef at Deer Valley Resort, has been on both sides of the "debate." To her, scones are
the fruit-filled, baked delicacies that people from outside Utah recognize instantly.
When she has made deep-fried bread dough, she called them sopaipillas and served them with a huevos
rancheros breakfast. Even so, Flatt said, she felt herself turning bright red in Phoenix during a recent conference of culinary
professionals from around the world, when Wall Street Journal editor and columnist Raymond Sokolov
targeted the "Utah scone" as something stranger than strange.
"He went off on a good, 3-minute discussion of Utah scones, and how they are deep-fried. ... It almost
seemed like [Sokolov] put it in for a touch of comedy."
Sokolov has a similar take on Utah scones and the Four Corners area as the "fried bread capital of the
world" in his book Fading Feast: A Compendium of Disappearing American Regional Foods. The book,
originally published in 1981, was reprinted by a new publisher last year with the addition of several new
essays, including "Everyman's Muffins." He writes that as he prepared for a trip to Salt Lake City, he was excited to read in another author's book
about Utah's unique scones, since the city "is not a rich area for gastronomic research."
He tried scones at Johanna's Kitchen "in Jordan, Utah" and at one of Vickie and Gerald Warner's 13
statewide Sconecutter shops, where scones are served with everything from honey butter to meat, as
sandwiches. "We've been doing business in Utah -- just Utah -- for 23 years, and our specialty is scones. All kinds of
scones," said Vickie Warner. "I've never really heard of them being anywhere else. We have a lot of
people who say they look forward to coming [to Utah] for our scones."
In trying to research the origins of the Utah scone, Sokolov naturally compares it to Navajo fry bread and
Mexican sopaipillas, suggesting that Utah's early Mormon pioneers liked the fried bread when they tried
it and adapted it to their tastes with a sweeter dough. He points out that recipes for scones from the Lion
House -- "the Mormon world's closest approximation to an official restaurant" -- and in Donna Lou
Morgan's What's Cooking in Utah Kitchens? (published by The Salt Lake Tribune) use eggs, buttermilk
and sugar. Utah's scone makers seem to have come to the same conclusion about the fried bread's origin, as Gerald
Warner from the Sconecutter and Stan Stevens from Johanna's described their products, without any
prompting, as similar to Navajo fry bread. "But we have a special recipe that's been in Johanna's family for eons," and has been used at the restaurant
for all of its 28 years, Stevens added. Deer Valley's Flatt gives a sneak preview of her upcoming cookbook, Chocolate Snowball and Other
Fabulous Pastries from Deer Valley Bakery (to be published in October by Falcon Publishing), with her
recipe for Dried Cherry Scones. She suggests serving them with butter and fruit preserves for breakfast or,
as the British do, for afternoon tea. "This is a very adaptable recipe," she writes. "I often add nuts to the
dough or use another dried fruit, such as apricots."

Here is the article by Mr. Sokolov from Natural History magazine:
"I would have liked to include a few scone recipes in this chapter, but once you start on scones where do
you stop? Like me, most of you probably grew up thinking of scones as rich muffins. My mother used to bake small
circular ones when I was growing up in Detroit. Later, when I lived in England, I ran into similar buns a
teahouses. That was twenty years ago, and I hadn't given scones a second though until I was recently preparing for a
visit to Salt Lake City and noticed in Michael and Jane Stern's Good Food that scones were a specialty of
the city. This seemed odd, and when I read the Sterns' description of Utah scones, I was sure they were
not the scones I had known elsewhere. Michael Stern was as puzzled as I was. Salt Lake scones were most unsconelike, he told me on the phone
before I left: they were fried, puffy, and sometimes split and used as buns for sloppy Joes.
This was confusing but exciting news. Salt Lake is not a rich area for gastronomic research. The
Mormons, who settled the city and whose culture is surely still the dominant local strain, were (and are) a
religious group drawn from many traditional cultures, not an ethnically coherent population with a settled
food tradition. Mormons are zealous missionaries who proselytize among nearby heathen, notably
American Indians, and all over the world. This international outlook led them to develop their own script
and lingua franca, Deseret. But on the culinary level, they seem to have been content to continue the diet
the first Mormons brought with them in the second half of the nineteenth century. Since the early settlers
departed from the Midwest, it isn't surprising that today's typical Mormon food should closely resemble
midwestern farmhouse food. In Salt Lake, I was able to verify this assumption at the Mormon world's closest approximation to an
official restaurant, a cafeteria called the Pantry, situated in the Lion House, a former home of Mormon
patriarch Brigham Young. The building is not open to the public but serves the Mormon community as a
sort of banquet hall and dining club. No fewer than five wedding parties were celebrating the day I was
taken there. From years of such prominence in Mormon feasting, the Lion House kitchen has taken on a special luster
among the faithful. Reservations for the banquet rooms are said to be made years in advance. It seems
reasonable to say, then, that the kitchen of the Lion House represents Mormon traditional cooking at its
best. And judging by what I ate at the Pantry and by the recipes collected in 1980 for Lion House Recipes,
Mormon cooking is an unreconstructed expression of mainstream middle American food: jello salads,
pies, meat and potatoes. Lion House Recipes does contain some relatively exotic dishes, such as Greek salad and Mexican taco
salad. What it lacks almost completely is purely local food ideas not imported from somewhere else. It
would be unfair, however, to blame the lack of purely Utah recipes only on the Mormons. You will find
almost no bona fide regional recipes in the secular counterpart to Lion House Recipes, a compilation
entitled What's Cooking in Utah Kitchens, edited by Donna Lou Morgan, food editor of the Salt Lake
Tribune. There are, to be sure, original dishes, such as Chicken Porter Rockwell (a chicken pie), and various other
concoctions culled from family recipe files, but the only dish in either of these books that seems to have
developed in Utah and taken root in the regional culture is the anomalous fried bread called scone.
In Utah, by the evidence of both local cookbooks and three local restaurants, the scone starts out as a
yeast-raised, sweet dough that is cut into 2-by-2-inch squares (or other shapes of similar surface area) and
deep-fried. The most popular method of service is with butter and honey. That is how I ate a midmorning
scone at Johanna's Kitchen in a mall at Jordan, Utah. They didn't bother to bring honey at the Pepper Tree
in Salt Lake, but they did advertise a free scone with each breakfast "entree" on the sign out front.
Clearly, the Utah scone is not a vanishing bread. Certainly not at the two-restaurant chain in Salt Lake
City called Sconecutter. At these twenty-four-hour drive-ins, the Utah scone rises to challenge the
doughnut and the hamburger bun as a fast-food commodity. Cooked on the spot from yeast dough, the
scones come out crisp, puffy, and rectangular. The dough inside is airy and pleasantly chewy. But are they
scones in the normal sense? And if not, where do they come from? How did they start?
Traditional English scones are too diverse to classify with much certainty, as Elizabeth David warns us.
But they do generally qualify as muffinish quick breads, and mostly they are baked. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, scones (derived from the Middle Low German schonbrot, or fine bread) are
baked, cooked on a griddle stone, or even fried (but not deep-fried). Yeast does crop up sometimes, for
example, in Jane Grigson's recipe for Northumbrian wholemeal scones in English Food. But no traditional
British scone I have ever eaten or read about comes close to resembling the Utah scone. So it seems
improbable that early Mormons of British extraction imported the deep-fried scone to their New World
Zion. When I asked her about it, donna Lou Morgan guessed that pioneer Utah cooks, who were inveterate
bread bakers, had taken to frying some of the yeast dough they often had on hand. She remembered her
own mother pinching off pieces of bread dough and frying them, but Morgan's own recipe for scones,
which is very much like the Lion Houses's, is not based on a conventional bread dough. It is richer and
sweeter and has chemical raising agents in it, undoubtedly to boost the puffing of the scone as it fries.
The first time I ate a Utah scone, I was certainly not reminded of bread or of traditional muffin scones. I
thought instantly of two other puffy fried breads popular in the West: Navajo fry bread and New Mexican
sopaipillas (see recipes). The taste of both these regional "breads" is very close to the taste of Utah
scones. Yes, the shapes and textures vary a little. But with the sopaipilla, there is an extra link. Like Utah
scones, sopaipillas are served with honey. Until some researcher makes a lucky strike in a Mormon woman's diary or a pioneer cookbook, we are
never going to know for sure how it is that Navajos, Chicanos, and Mormons ended up eating similar
fried breads. It could all be coincidence, but in the absence of hard facts, it is tempting to construct an
explanatory scenario that will connect all the fried breads so popular in the mountain time zone, from
Bountiful, Utah, to Hatch, New Mexico. Here is one. Let us suppose that both the Navajo fry bread and the sopaipilla predate the Utah scone. They are simpler
and history is on their side Both Navajos and Hispanicized New Mexicans were in their present regions
long before the Mormons. Their fry breads are almost identical, and so it makes sense to look for an
archetypal southwestern fry bread from which both descend. Now since most culinary ideas in the U.S.
Southwest moved there from the south, when Mexico controlled the area, there ought to be a Mexican
ancestor for the sopaipilla and for the Navajo fry bread. In fact, there is one. Diana Kennedy located sopaipillas in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which shares
some of its northern border with New Mexico. Sopaipillas are uncommon there, but they are called
sopaipillas and are similar to those eaten in New Mexico, except that in Chihuahua they aren't made with a
chemical rising agent (or with yeast). This greater simplicity argues in favor of Chihuahua as the
birthplace of American fry bread. Still, it may be that the Chihuahuan sopaipilla is a later simplification of a New Mexican original. But I
doubt that. Common sense tells me that the baking soda now used by Navajos and Chicanos came to them
at a late date from the intruding Anglo world. The primitive fry bread now preserved in Chihuahua was
probably once indigenous to the entire region we are talking about and now survives only in Chihuahua
because of its remoteness from outside influences. Most probably, then, when Mormons first came into
contact with southwestern Indians, they found them eating an unleavened fried bread that puffed up in hot
oil. Inevitably, they tasted it and liked it. Mormon women then tried to duplicate the recipe and added a
whole battery of raising agents they knew about from English baking. They put in buttermilk because its
mild acidity was necessary to activate baking soda and make it give off carbon dioxide. They added eggs
and sugar and ended up with a delicous and original bread, related in kind to the beignet family, but a
thing unto itself. And lacking a name for the thing, they remembered scones, quick sweet breads from
back home that were also cut into individual serving pieces before cooking.
This is only a hypothesis, not a substitute for real evidence. At any rate, the Utah scone flourishes on its
native ground, hard by its Indian cousins. And no matter how Navajo bread, sopaipillas, and Utah scones
actually came about, it is the case that the Four Corners, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and
Colorado meet, is the fried bread capital of the world."
---"Everyman's muffins; Includes recipes," Sokolov, Raymond, Natural History, June, 1985, Vol. 94 ; Pg.
82

"Buckwheat, peaches, and apples are the most important agricultural food products of
the state. The Golden Delicious apple, which was developed form a stray seedling by
A.H. Mullins in Clay County, West Virginia, in 1890, is now grown throughout the
country and is known for its mellow flavor and lovely pale-yellow skin...One of the
main meals of the early frontier familis was stewed squirrel cooked with onions, garlic,
thyme and bacon. Bear meat was also prized. Wild greens were the early vegetables of
the settlers until they planted corn, beans, and potatoes. Most pioneer families
maintained a few pigs to supplement their diet of wild game meat."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 96-97)
[NOTE: The West Virginia recipes offered in this book include Sally Lunn, Fluffy
Spoon Bread, and Pumpkin Pie.]

Need to make something for class? How about spoon bread!

Fluffy Spoon Bread
Spoon bread, so named because of its light, fluffy, custard-like texture, is served with a spoon. The addition of cream in this recipe gives the spoon
bread a richer consistency. Serves 6 to 8

1 2/3 cups milk
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup stone-ground white cornmeal
2/3 cup water
3 tablespoons soft butter
1 tablespoon sugar
Dash of salt
4 extra-large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons baking powder
Combine the milk, cream, cornmeal, water, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a slow boil over medium-low heat and then simmer
for 2 minutes, stirring vigorously. Eemove from heat and turn the mixture into a large bowl. Let it cool slightly. Beat the egg whites until they hold
stiff peaks. Beat the egg yolks with the baking powder until the yolks are light and lemon-colored. Stir the egg yolks into the cornmeal mixture quickly.
Fold in a quarter of the egg whites and then fold in the remaining egg whites. Gently pour the batter into a greased 3-quart souffle dish and bake in
a preheated 375 degree F. oven for 35 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The center
should still be creamy and soft. Spoon out individual servings at once and top with butter."
---Taste of the States: A Food History of America, Hilde Gabriel Lee [Howell
Press:Charlottesville VA] 1992 (p. 98)

The West Virginia recipes included in Shelia Hibben's National Cookbook [c. 1932] are
Pigeons in cornmeal, Spanish cream and Turned out custard. If you need more recipes we recommend Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine,
Joseph E. Dabney.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin's unique ethnic heritage is responsible for creating an interesting
blend of local culinary traditions. Who settled here? This list is provided by the Milwaukee
County Historical Society. Traditional foods are enjoyed at GermanFest (annual, late July).

The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander, was
published in Milwaukee in 1901. It contains many recipes popular with immigrant households. The 1906 Capital City Cook Book
/Grace Church Guild [Madison WI] offers additional recipes. We can send you recipes.

1. Beans
True, this state is best known for bean production. Beans played an important role in the
diet of Wyoming's Native Americans, early explorers, and settlers. They provided a
staple base of protein, were easy to grow, store and cook. If you want to make
something people will like? How about chilli! If this option appeals, ask your teacher
about how best to serve this. Can you bring it in a crockpot?

2. Jerky
Native Americans, trappers, and early settlers in Wyoming territory ate dried meats
(buffalo, elk, moose, deer, beef). Sometimes it is called pemmican. If you are not
required to cook something, jerky works well. Most grocery stores carry this product
and it requires no special serving gear. Or? You can
make your own.

3. Sheep
The Shoshone who were the first inhabitants of the Yellowstone area were known as
sheep-eaters.
(page through for more information). What about lamb kabobs (small pieces of lamb
served on wooden skewers...grilled outdoors if possible)? Serve hot or cold, make sure
they are properly stored (not left in a locker until the end of the day).

4. Bread
The staple of the U.S. Army and homesteaders. Easy (and inexpensive) to make,
transport to school and serve.
About the bakery in Ft. Laramie.

5. Contemporary fare
Everything from 5 star cuisine to mountain gourmet to 50s chic to family meals to fast food to
home cooked dinners to....
Nice places to eat (yes, we have been there!) Mangy Moose &
Cadillac Grille, both in Jackson Hole.

Sheila Hibben's National Cookbook [1932] includes two recipes for Wyoming: Currant Pudding
and Potato Molds. We can send these recipes if you like.

Sorry, no Buffalo wings
While Buffalo wings may seem an obvious choice, we're sorry to say these won't work. While
buffalo historically roamed the great Wyoming grassland, Buffalo wing chicken snacks were *invented* at the Anchor Bar
in Buffalo, NY . There is no buffalo meat or Wyoming connection. What does work?
Jerky or venison/elk/buffalo sausage. You can serve these with crackers (plain saltines/soda
crackers), rounds of sourdough, or mini baking soda biscuits. Jerky is easy to buy in most parts
of the United States. You can find packages in supermarkets and convenience stores. This is
your least expensive and easiest option. The sausages may be harder to obtain. Gourmet shops
and mail-order work, if you have time and money. You can serve spicy cheese or cheese sauce,
although these are not a native products of Wyoming.